FROM NEBRASKA TO BARCELONA

Outirght and obivous ruelty to animals continues to become less Okay, if at a glacial pace: Nebraska becomes the 41st state to make animal cruelty a felony, leaving only Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, North Dakota and Utah to get with the program; the gradual elimination of dogs as test subjects for medical schools is now official; and even Barcelona is looking to outlaw bullfighting. Awareness of the reality of animal cruelty is becoming more prevalent, and it's something that can't be put back in.

THE START OF SOMETHING BIG?

It's only preliminary right now, but indications are that the deadly SARS virus sweeping the globe and crashing economies started with people eating and handling "wild game" - specifically chickens, ducks, pigeons and owls. Again, it's just preliminary, yes. But if this is confirmed as a source, it will be a big wake-up call to health officials as well as those who maintain humans are "naturally" predisposed to eating wild animals. In a not-quite-unrelated story, fears about CJD spreading to humans from animals are on the rise again as three more hunters have died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, two of them from the same town. New Scientist mentions that "the surveillance system in the US is so woefully inadequate that even if these fears are unfounded, it is impossible for researchers to rule out the possibility." The CDC will not investigate, since the men are from supposedly CWD-free states - you know, the kind that all the other states were until CWD was found there. This is a disturbing development, to say the least. What I fear is that it is only preliminary.

VEGGIE RESTAURANTS IN THE BLACK (COMMUNITY)

Although it's tempting to dismiss it as a token effort to balance its (and everybody's) sensational coverage of the Swintons (vegan parents) case, this Newsday article is a nice overview of some of the ways veganism and whole foods are catching on in the African-American community. Just one provocative quote: "Some say the vegan eating style for blacks is a political act of self-assertion: 'We are trying to introduce African foods and products that we were robbed of during slavery.'" And from the other angle, "I wasn't aware how big vegetarianism is.... They're popping up all over the place, these vegetarian places. It's a big, big business, and it's growing."

RETURN of I'LL JUST SWITCH TO FISH

More fish to watch out for: A Pennsylvania company has recalled smoked salmon and smoked trout, citing listeria contamination. Meanwhile, excess mercury is slowly killing one in 12 U.S. women, Reuters reports, and the influential California Medical Association is now pushing "labels informing consumers about the health dangers from excessive amounts of mercury." Other than those potentially fatal aspects, fish is the perfect health food!

ONLY FAT ON THE INSIDE?

I know for most of you this is not much of a jaw-dropper, but it emerges that saturated fat is even worse for you than previously thought or detected, piling on pounds around your internal organs. I'll wait and see how the animal-fat-is-good-for-you crowd spins this one...