Butcher Milks ‘Mad Cow’ Ban

Women wore black and cried mock tears as Tuscans mourned the Florentine beefsteak, their culinary glory that was to become illegal at midnight because of the “mad cow” scare.

Butcher Dario Cecchini held a mock funeral and auctioned off the thick cuts of beef that include a piece of backbone, whose tissue is believed to harbor the agent that causes the brain-wasting disease.

Several thousand people attended the funeral and benefit auction for a children’s hospital.