A very important NAIS update

[Just Us N Texas]

Received this e-mail this morning.

-----Original Message-----

From: Sharlyn Homola <[email protected]>

To: Oregon NAIS <[email protected]>; Christians NAIS <[email protected]>; NAIS Horse <[email protected]>

Sent: Wed, 18 Mar 2009 2:52 pm

Subject: [naisfromtheshorsesmouth] Fw: [ocfa] NAIS Alert

I apologize if this has been seen before. I am behind on emails (...again).

Sharlyn

Homola Horse Haven

Umpqua, OR

----- Forwarded Message ----

R-CALF USA Member Alert

(This is not a News Release)

To: R-CALF USA Members and Affiliates

From: Bill Bullard, R-CALF USA CEO

Date: March 13, 2009

Subject: Urgen t Alert on NAIS; Deadline March 20, 2009

On March 11, 2009, R-CALF USA President Max Thornsberry, D.V.M., testified at a

congressional subcommittee hearing on USDA's National Animal Identification

System (NAIS). Dr. Thornsberry presented a powerful case against NAIS, but the

witnesses were clearly stacked in favor of mandatory NAIS. Most of the members

of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and

Poultry (Subcommittee) who attended the hearing also appeared to favor NAIS.

Our best chance to stop NAIS is in this Subcommittee, and it is right now, while

the hearing record remains open. We need thousands of letters from across the

country, from livestock producers, main-street businesses and consumers, to be

faxed to the Subcommittee before March 20, 2009, the date the hearing record

closes.

Below is a template letter you can use to fax your letter to the Subcommittee.

Feel free to use all or part of this letter, or write one on your own. The

important thing is we must literally have thousands of letters from all across

the country faxed in before March 20.

This is URGENT if you want to put a stop to NAIS. Please circulate this alert

and the template letter to any e-mail or fax list you may have in order to

blanket the country.

There are about 3,000 R-CALF USA members that receive this alert. This is so

important that we are asking every R-CALF USA member to deliver a copy of this

=0 Aalert to at least one non-member to get them to also fax a letter to the

Subcommittee.

Here is the Subcommittee's Fax Number for faxing your personal letter:

202-225-4544.

Timing is everything. Please help us get thousands of personal letters from

livestock producers, main-street businesses and consumers faxed to the

Subcommittee before March 20. Good Luck!

Here's the one-page template letter (which also is posted on our Web site at

www.r-calfusa.com):

[Put Date Here]

The Honorable David Scott

Chairman, House Committee on Agriculture

Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry

1301 Longworth House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515-6001

Re: Testimony for March 11, 2009 Hearing on Review of Animal Identification

Systems

Dear Chairman Scott and Subcommittee Members:

I am a [insert livestock producer and/or consumer] from [insert your town and

state] and I urge you to reject the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's)

National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

NAIS is government intrusion at its worst. It is un-American for Congress and

USDA to force each U.S. farmer and rancher to register with, and report to, the

federal government their real property, the number and species of livestock they

own, the number of animals produced from each year's production, and the date

and location where their livestock are located or moved 9 3 even when their

livestock are not moved in interstate commerce or sold for human consumption.

With few exceptions, no other segment of America's free enterprise system is

subject to such a heightened level of direct government surveillance.

USDA and Congress are using fear tactics to justify NAIS. They claim the U.S.

is behind other countries in disease preparedness and cannot effectively control

and eradicate animal diseases. This is absurd. The U.S. veterinary

infrastructure is the envy of the world. For decades, U.S. livestock producers

worked with their local veterinarians, state veterinarians, and regional and

national USDA veterinarians to make the U.S. livestock herd the healthiest herd

in the world. It is dishonest and irresponsible to assert the U.S. is second

behind any other country in its ability to prevent, control and eradicate animal

diseases.

The problem NAIS is supposed to solve is not real; it is speculative. The U.S.

has controlled every disease ever to enter the United States. If this were not

true, why did USDA significantly cut back its BSE surveillance testing and why

does the agency allow the importation of Mexican cattle known to continually

reintroduce bovine tuberculosis into the United States? Congress refuses to

address the real disease problems facing U.S. livestock producers and consumers.

The massive meat recalls involving millions of pounds of meat were not caused by

U.S. livestock producers; they were caused by uns anitary conditions at U.S. and

foreign slaughterhouses. The 2003 mad cow disease case in an imported cow that

closed U.S. export markets was not caused by U.S. livestock producers. It was

caused by USDA's failure to restrict Canadian imports after Canada discovered

its first case of mad cow disease in 1993.

Rather than prevent the introduction of foreign animal diseases by strengthening

our border restrictions and addressing the actual source of meat contamination

by enforcing food safety standards in U.S. and foreign slaughterhouses, Congress

and USDA intend to impose the most onerous regulatory regime imaginable upon

U.S. livestock producers.

Please stop NAIS and work with R-CALF USA to develop a sensible plan that would

benefit livestock producers by improving our already effective disease

prevention, control, and eradication programs.

Sincerely,

[include name and address]

__._,_.___

 

[Elsa]

I would be interested to hear why people oppose NAIS aside from "government intrusion"?

 

[Magic]

I would be interested to hear why people oppose NAIS aside from "government intrusion"?

Burdensome expense, massive amounts of time and paperwork and phone calls, to start with. The added expenses alone will cause many to go out of business, and the majority of those will be the small family farms, since there are provisions for the largest ones to group their herds for reporting. Horses are NOT exempt from this, and if you have pet goats, chickens, etc, they will be reportable too. The fines for not complying are enormous, and the government can come onto anyone's property at any time to investigate, without a search warrant or permission. Doesn't sound like a "free country" to me! OH!

 

[LaVern]

Yes,That makes a lot of sense doesn't it. put more more restrictions on the American beef producers and let McDonalds bring in all the Mexican untested unlabeled beef they want. The government will not mess with the few huge packers, they are supposed to put country of origin labels on all beef now, but they won't and are getting away with it.

A while back a small packer plant advertized and did check each animal for Mad Cow. They were shut down, because the government said they made the other big plants look bad. Makes you wonder.

 

[Elsa]

I would be interested to hear why people oppose NAIS aside from "government intrusion"?

Burdensome expense, massive amounts of time and paperwork and phone calls, to start with. The added expenses alone will cause many to go out of business, and the majority of those will be the small family farms, since there are provisions for the largest ones to group their herds for reporting. Horses are NOT exempt from this, and if you have pet goats, chickens, etc, they will be reportable too. The fines for not complying are enormous, and the government can come onto anyone's property at any time to investigate, without a search warrant or permission. Doesn't sound like a "free country" to me! OH!

Thank you for your response.

In my personal opinion, I think the cattle industry should adopt NAIS (although a less invasive version). I don't particularly see the point to include any animal not used for consumption, such as horses, however.

 

[Elsa]

they are supposed to put country of origin labels on all beef now, but they won't and are getting away with it.

wasn't that law just recently imposed?

On a sidenote, the FDA needs way more funding than they are currently receiving

 

[Bunnylady]

I would be interested to hear why people oppose NAIS aside from "government intrusion"?

May I give you a rabbit breeder's perspective?

Rabbit people are up in arms about this for a number of reasons. NAIS would require us to identify (microchip, most likely) every rabbit we produce. We would be required to record and report just about every move that animal made. So if I went to a show, I would have to report on every animal that went to that show with me. If I took a litter of bunnies to sell, I would have to report on every one of those bunnies, whether they sold or not. If any of them sold, I would also have to report who those animals sold to. If they sold at home, I would have to report that. If I took some to, say, an Easter egg hunt, I would have to report that. If any rabbit died, of any cause (and they are worse than horses at finding odd causes!) I would have to report that. Some people sell rabbits for human consumption. Some people feed rabbits to snakes, I can imagine they'd find it a real hassle to have to check each one for a microchip before feeding!

If Joe Whatsis wants to raise a few rabbits for his own consumption, he can't legally do it without first registering his herd with the government. You don't really think they'd let him do that for free, do you? The 4-H kid that decided to try his hand at raising rabbits would have to register first, or he'd be in violation of the law. The family that bought a couple of rabbits as pets and had an accidental litter would be in violation of the law. Can you imagine how many new government employees there would have to be to keep track of all this?

There is at least one rabbit disease that, while believed to be harmless to humans, is very contagious and quickly fatal to rabbits. There have been a couple of outbreaks of this disease in the US in the last few years. Fortunately, these outbreaks were quickly contained, although eradication of exposed animals and quarantine of nearby farms was necessary to do so. While we can see that a system of registration might be helpful in an outbreak situation, trying to keep this level of records and reporting all the time, plus the expenses involved, just isn't doable for most people for whom rabbits are a hobby!

 

[Shari]

I would be interested to hear why people oppose NAIS aside from "government intrusion"?

Because "Your" Animals,, the ones you love, bought and paid for ... becomes part of the "National Herd", in easy terms the Gov owns your animals and can do any thing they like to them at any time. Which also means they can come onto your property at any time to do so...without warrent. It also means... you have no legal recourse.

They made sure they worded well, so you can't go after the Gov and its workers.

Imagine the abuse that could and would happen? Don't think it can happen to you.... just wait.

There are al ready good laws on the books that do the same thing the NAIS,, but without all the extra paper work, fees and taking our rights away. Except the USDA and FDA have fallen down on the job time and again, so the pass the blame to the good citizens, pass a new bill to cover their backsides and we suffer for it.

 

[JourneysEnd]

Sent my fax