Texas Cattlemen To Get Day In Court Against Oprah

Although mad cow disease never has been documented in the United States, Oprah Winfrey says she had every right to speculate on her TV show about the possibility of an outbreak here.

Texas cattlemen disagree.

On Tuesday, pretrial hearings will begin in a lawsuit charging that Winfrey defamed an entire industry when the disease was made fodder for her talk show.

Cattlemen claim they lost millions of dollars because of the show. Oprah, her Harpo Productions Inc. and distributor King World Productions say the show only was keeping the public informed.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a brain-destroying disease which has ravaged cattle in Britain since the late 1980s.

It is believed to have been spread by cattle feed containing ground-up sheep parts, but it was not until 1996 that British scientists announced humans may have contracted the disease by eating diseased beef.

Enter Oprah.

During an “Oprah Winfrey Show” broadcast in April 1996, a guest said that feeding ground-up animal parts to cattle, which was being done at the time, could spread the disease to humans in the United States.

To studio audience applause, Winfrey exclaimed: “It has just stopped me from eating another burger!”

Cattle prices began to fall the day of the show and declined for two weeks before rising again.

Amarillo, Texas, cattle feeder Paul Engler was livid.

No case of mad cow disease ever has been reported in the United States, although eating meat from cattle tainted by the disease is believed to have killed at least 20 people overseas, mostly in Britain.

Engler, who said he lost $6.7 million because of the show, sued, along with a dozen other cattlemen, under a 1995 Texas law that protects agricultural products from slander.