Urban Legend: McDonald's 3

Master Of Puppets · Posted: Apr Fri , 2007 12:14 pm Post subject: Urban Legend: McDonald's 3

Mutant laboratory meat

Around March, 2000, an Internet rumor spread via e-mail in Brazil "revealed" that McDonald's meat was actually made from a genetically modified "thing" maintained in laboratory. The e-mail stated that "the few who saw it assure it is a very unpleasant sight: they have no limbs or horns, no bones (undeveloped cartilage instead), no eyes, no tail and no fur; its head is about the size of a tennis ball; they are fed through tubes connected directly into their stomach".

The e-mail carries on saying that "some irreversible health damage can be done by eating this meat, resulting in diseases who manifest themselves in a way similar to AIDS, and have symptoms related to Alzheimer's Disease" and ends encouraging the reader to boycott McDonald's until it sells actual beef.

The "discovery" was credited to researchers from the University of Michigan, although there are no official claims from anyone who actually works there.

Some analyzers claim that the origins of this rumor are from Portugal, because of the use of the word SIDA instead of AIDS (in Brazilian Portuguese, AIDS is used instead of SIDA) and the word "facto" when in Brazil "fato" is used.

This urban legend is supposedly a variation of the "Frankenchicken Legend". According to this rumor, the chicken sold by Kentucky Fried Chicken are "things" genetically modified which have no beak, legs or feathers.

These rumors most likely stem from the meat industry's attempts to "fatten up" the animals by use of hormones, antibiotics, and other chemicals. Additionally, most large commercial chicken farms de-beak their chickens.