Recently Reuters reported that out of The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal, only the Journal thought Monday's confirmation of a third case of mad cow was worth covering on its front page. Considering that newspapers make money by printing the news people care about, it seems like Americans just don't care to read about the incidence of an incredibly rare and slow-moving disease in cows. Who can blame them? After all, mad cow poses an insignificant risk to human beings.

Of course, this lack of interest hasn't stopped wacky activists from trying to exploit an opportunity to push their own agendas. Wayne Pacelle, the vegan who heads the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), condemned the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for failing to enact over-the-top and unnecessary new restrictions on livestock farming. Never one to miss a publicity stunt, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (yes, those guys again) had some of its frequently naked activists actually put on additional clothes -- biohazard suits -- to hand out "emergency vegetarian starter kit" propaganda. Does it really make any sense to use a disease that doesn't really spread to humans very well, as a reason not to eat meat?

Many activists are trying to do the same thing with bird flu. Neal "I'm not a nutritionist, but I play one on letterhead" Barnard from the PETA-affiliated Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is traveling across the continent extolling the virtues of not eating chicken as it relates to avoiding bird flu. (Never mind that cooking chicken will kill the virus, and that modern poultry farms can easily quarantine and contain any flock should birds start turning up sick.) HSUS, meanwhile, is using bird flu as an opportunity to call for all sorts of additional regulations that would achieve animal-rights objectives while masquerading as firewalls against bird flu.

Part of the problem is the attention that the media gives to the topics of animal disease are blown out of proportion when they initially hit the masses. Often we become overly concerned about contracting the disease ourselves, and fail to realize that these issues can be solved through quarantine, regular testing (in the case of meat intended for human consumption), and proper food preparation.