SAGINAW – Pete Bonds runs a huge ranching operation. He has thousands of head of cattle spread across Texas.
He's worried about the threat - even the remotest threat - of foot-and-mouth disease infecting his herds.
"I go to shaking every time I think about it," he said. "The devastation we would see on these cow herds is just tremendous."
Bonds had to speak up to be heard over bellowing cows that thought we had come to feed them in their pasture north of Saginaw.
A branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to allow cattle and meat imports from the Patagonia region of Argentina. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is taking comments on the proposal.
Site visits revealed only a slight risk of infection.
"In my opinion, there can be no risk," Bonds said.
He said the World Organization for Animal Health also declared the region free of foot-and-mouth. Bonds wants more proof.
He says there's just too much on the line.
"This is a disease we cannot allow into the United States," he said.
Bonds knows what happened when foot-and-mouth disease infected Houston herds back in 1925. They were shot. The slaughter is captured on several black-and-white photos he keeps in a folder. He took the photos to Washington to make his point with lawmakers.
"We need all the help we can get on this," he said. "If you look at some of these pictures and pits, imagine a feed yard with 100,000 head of cattle in it, that you have to drive out and shoot and burn."
A foot-and-mouth outbreak in England in the 1960s forced the destruction of nearly a half-million animals. It was linked to imported meat.
Bonds said the disease would spread even faster in 21st-century Texas, because of so many feral hogs that could easily infect cattle.
The rancher told us he supports more beef imports, because the U.S. can't meet demand. But unless he has more proof they would be free of disease, he said the risk outweighs the benefit.
As head of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers association, he's urging thousands of ranchers to join the fight.