The chickens have finally come home to roost--only they aren't chickens. The American cattle industry--a bastion of cruelty and societal abuse--is now in trouble.

This is the industry that transports cattle in trucks that are sometimes so crowded that some animals' legs are broken. Others may die of cold or heat. The injured animals are then tossed aside and left to die. The ones who aren't injured are not fed or given water. These are also the people who place veal calves in crates so tiny, the babies--already deprived of their mothers--cannot even move around. They often become ill, and are then dosed with antibiotics. They are left to develop anemia so that their skin will be pale. They are then obscenely fattened and slaughtered. The slaughter of cattle, by the way, is not "humane." It is obscene.

Dairy cows are hooked to milking machines for much of their lives. Their calves are taken away from them. They do not get to eat in a pasture. Their life consists of having babies and being attached to a machine.

In the meantime, those millions of "moral" Americans who think it's perfectly okay to eat tortured animals or to drink their milk pay their own price. Remember the antibiotics? Remember the downed animals? Then there are the hormones, of course. The result is the massive poisoning of the American diet.

And now there is mad cow disease. The cattle industry is going to suffer. Pardon me if I can't work up any sympathy.