some french butchers are giving away meat in an attempt to regain public confidence in their products 
jennifer eccleston explains 
a bevy of butchers ferry steaming platters of barbecued beef to crowds in a central paris park. it's sane cow day in paris, according to the 200 butchers who organized the free cookout 
they're hoping locals will cast aside mounting fears in france over bse, the deadly brain wasting disease in cattle, and its human equivalent, variant creutzfeldt jakob disease 
i said to my husband, david, that it would be good to go the luxembourg gardens and see representatives of the beef producers, and taste good meat 
and the meat is really good 
we like it very much 
when asked if she was afraid of bse, or as it's commonly known, mad cow disease, michele nicolas said it didn't scare her at all music to the ears of today's sponsors 
the bse panic broke out in france in october when it was revealed that potentially contaminated meat, from a herd in which one bse case had been identified, had been put on sale in supermarkets 
as a result, stores in paris took beef off the shelves, and it was removed from school menus nationwide 
today's barbecue hopes to shore up consumer confidence in the troubled beef industry 
the aim of this operation is, above all, to make consumers understand that we are small butchers, and we work in our shops with beef raised exclusively for meat, and with that kind of beef, there is no problem 
these are beef that have not eaten animal based feed 
they eat grains, and not animal feed 
so, there is no risk 
france's agriculture ministry announced four new cases of bse in cattle last friday, bringing this year's total to over 120 cases, more than four times the figure for 1999 
cases have also been reported in britain, ireland and belgium, and, most recently, in germany 
european union ministers, reacting to europe wide concerns, last week announced a six month ban on the use of meat and bone meal in all animal fodder 
it's considered the main route for bse contamination 
jennifer eccleston, cnn,