People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) claims that any animal with a brain can get mad cow disease, and a new web campaign seeks to spread the idea hither and yon. Eat the tainted meat, PETA claims, and you get it too. Exploiting the great growth in seeking medical and nutritional information online and a highly fluid word-of-mouth environment, the PETA site says "if there's a brain, it could have a spongy brain (spongiform encephalopathy); we've already identified mad cow disease variants in humans, sheep, mink, cows, elk, deer, and cats."

As usual, PETA has the answer: a free vegetarian starter kit will help visitors learn to love tofu, tempeh and other healthy yummies.