Gene-Altered Pigs on the Dinner Table?

Tainted (GM) Pigs Show up in Sausage at Funeral.

http://208.141.36.73/listarchive/index.cfm?list_id=30 (4 June Post)
(Associated Press, 3 June 2001).

Tainted pork from genetically altered pigs stolen from the University
of Florida showed up in sausage served at a funeral in High Springs,
university police said. For months, university officials said they had
recovered and incinerated all of the meat from the experimental pigs
stolen in January. But police said the meat from the pigs, which had
been genetically altered and injected with enough barbiturates and
chemicals to kill a 500-pound pig, was ground up and made into
sausage by a butcher in High Springs, finally making its way to a funeral
service there.

Kenny Atkins was fired from his position as an animal technician there
after admitting to stealing three of six dead pigs that were to be
incinerated. Atkins gave two of the pigs to Norman Blake of Alachua and
sold one for $65 to Joe Darling of High Springs. Dave Washington, the
butcher who dressed Blake's pigs, told university police he made sausage
from the meat, kept some and brought some to a funeral dinner. He said
he and his brother sampled the sausage but threw it away because "it
didn't taste right."

The stolen pigs were genetically engineered to develop a disorder similar
to diabetic blindness in humans. University officials do not know what
effect, if any, the treated meat could have on people who eat it. The pig
incident is one in a series of missteps at the university's Animal Resources
department which oversees the treatment of biomedical research animals.

Last June, the director of Animal Resources, Jerry Davis, was fired after
the unit was put on probation in the wake of an annual inspection that found
problems with routine care of research animals and the oversight of the
program. Federal regulators are currently investigating complaints about the
facility's animal care procedures.