In 1996, celebrity entrepreneur and talk show host Oprah Winfrey was sued by a group of Texas cattle producers after doing a show on the topic of mad cow disease, an illness in cattle that slowly destroys brain tissue, eventually causes death, and can be transmitted to humans who eat diseased beef. During the show one of her guests criticized the U.S. practice of feeding processed livestock to cattle, something which had been linked to an outbreak of the disease in Europe. Horrified by what she was hearing, Oprah told the audience that her guest's comments had "stopped me cold from eating another burger!" A Texas jury found Oprah not guilty of causing the cattle producers any harm and the charges were dismissed. After the trial, Winfrey told reporters, "Free speech not only lives, it rocks!"