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Animal owners treated like sex offenders

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Posted: January 12, 2008

1:00 a.m. Eastern

Sex offenders are required to register their premises and report to the government when they move. Similarly, the USDA is implementing a so-called "voluntary" program that requires owners of livestock animals to register their premises and report to the government when any animal is moved off the premises.

The program is called the National Animal Identification System, or NAIS; it is rolling toward implementation, despite the fact that it has not yet been authorized by Congress. When first introduced, it was scheduled to be mandatory, with every premises or property in the nation where livestock animals are housed, registered in a federal database by 2007. Every animal was to be identified by a 15-digit, internationally unique number and tag, by 2008. And by 2009, the movement of any animal off the registered premises was to be reported to the federal government.

Animal owners rebelled and forced the USDA to rethink its plan. Now, they say the program is "voluntary," but it is far from voluntary. By heaping taxpayer-funded grants to state departments of agriculture, and ag-related organizations, the USDA is "partnering" with other organizations that are effectively mandating participation in the program.

For example, in Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina and elsewhere, students enrolled in 4-H and Future Farmers of America are required to have the premises where their animals are housed registered in the NAIS before they can participate in state fairs. At least two states have convinced their legislatures to make NAIS participation mandatory at the state level, and other state departments of agriculture are working to do the same.

In its new business plan, released in December, the USDA announced that breed registry organizations will require the use of NAIS-compliant identification numbers. The plan also declares that brands and other forms of non-electronic identification methods, will no longer be acceptable. In some states, where hay has been made available in drought-stricken areas, registration in the NAIS is required before the hay can be distributed.

This indirect coercion is far from "voluntary." It is nothing less than another strong-arm tactic by another agency of big government that fully intends to inflict its will upon the people.

The idea of the NAIS grew out of agencies and sub-organizations of the World Trade Organization. International regulations are evolving that limit export of meat products to countries that utilize an electronic trace-back system. U.S. meat exporters, and manufacturers of electronic tags and tag-reading equipment, have been the driving force behind the NAIS program in the United States. These are people who will profit from the NAIS, along with the USDA bureaucracy and their "partner" organizations that receive your tax dollars in the form of generous grants.

(Column continues below)

The program is being sold to legislators and to the public as a better way to identify the source of a disease outbreak. This is a ridiculous "sound-good" sales pitch. There has been no outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in more than 75 years. The current system has worked exceedingly well. The only food-safety problems arise from the feed lots and processing plants, where the USDA food safety inspectors routinely let tainted meat pass the USDA inspection. This is where the USDA should be focusing its efforts.

Typically, a rancher must have a vet certify that his cattle are healthy before they can be shipped to a processor. Once in the processor's feed lot, the cattle are mixed with cattle from who knows where, often from other countries, where diseases may be present. This should also be a target of the USDA's concern. The NAIS, however, would identify an animal that might become infected in the feed lot and trace it back to a rancher, thus shifting the blame from the processor to the individual rancher.

The entire NAIS is designed to benefit the big processors, equipment manufacturers, the bureaucracies and the partner organizations that prostitute themselves to get the government grants. The program will not improve food safety. It will drive small farmers and ranchers out of business by adding additional costs and unbearable regulatory compliance requirements.

Big government is dreaming about more power and building a bureaucracy that hopes to identify and track hundreds of millions of livestock animals and the movements of the private citizens who dare take their private property to other locations. A horse owner out for an afternoon ride would have to report to the government. A farmer who sells a pig to a neighbor would have to report to the government.

The only other citizens subject to this stringent government control are convicted sex offenders. Surely, the citizens of this country will not allow our government to snare all livestock animal owners under this same kind of control. If government is successful in this NAIS effort, pet owners are surely next on the list. And then, the rest of the people.

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Henry Lamb is the chairman of Sovereignty International and founder of the Environmental Conservation Organization (ECO).

 

[mgranch]

Mine is!! I don't understand how they can do this?? So, I don't breed but have horses for fun which are already a struggle to feed with rising hay cost and availability, fuel is so expensive can't afford to go anywhere and now this??!! What will happen to us horse people??

 

[seahorse]

In some states, where hay has been made available in drought-stricken areas, registration in the NAIS is required before the hay can be distributed.

This is totally un-constitutional! (well, the whole NAIS is) I mean, you have to enter their "program" in order to keep your animals from starving!!!

If this goes on, are they going to start making us get microchiped before we can get groceries!!! (unfortunatly I think the answer would be yes)

 

[nightflight]

I think the sex offender comparison is not appropriate at all. Sex offenders don't have to be marked with microchips, pay higher taxes, and don't have to provide health documentation on demand. They are only usually a threat to women and children, not a threat to national security like us horse owners!

 

[seahorse]

I found this on the NAIS "users guide"

"Animal identification is now available for use with several species, including cattle/bison, poultry, swine, sheep, goats, cervids (deer and elk), equines (horses, mules, donkeys, burros), and camelids (llamas and alpacas). The States and private industry continue working on animal identification so that it will eventually be an option for all species."

This is not going to be just livestock. They want to register EVERYTHING! Go figure!

Edited to add: They want NAIS to be for every country! In the "users guide" under animal identification #'s

"Other countries, through international standards, are assigned three-digit codes. For example, Canada’s identification numbers have 124 as the first three digits (Canada’s country code) followed by 12 additional digits. These numbering systems allow the national number to be unique worldwide. "

We HAVE to do something!

 

[Shari]

People have been trying to do something...and the Gov is not listening.

There are less people in the country owning horses and livestock... than live in the Citites and Suburbs. That is where the problem lies.

We do not have the sheer numbers or folks that have lots of money to force the Gov to listen.

The Criminals in this country do and will have more rights than animals owners. Makes one wonder, who has the money to push NAIS through.

 

[nightflight]

The American Horse Council

http://www.horsecouncil.org/

has been a voice of reason before. They are part of the reason why we don't have to tag horses with ear tags like cattle. An e-mail or call with your concerns to them may have an impact.

 

[mini1]

I am going to try very hard to keep from sounding as furious as I am about several things in this post.

First my husband and I produce cattle and sheep as well as have a few horses as pets. The comparison to a sex offender is apalling. Don't EVER lump me or my husband in the same category as those degenerates I don't care what point you are trying to make!!!

The premises registration has been in effect for YEARS for sheep producers due to the need to try to eradicate scrapies which is a distant cousin to mad cow disease. It does not cost me a thing to register my farm with the state and they provide the I.D. tags with my farm number. I do not have to report anything to the Federal Government as to when my animals move.

As far as our cattle go the registration IS voluntary and I have registered with our state. As someone whose income is in part from livestock production and someone who has seen and felt the effects (a plummet in cattle prices) of a discovery of mad cow disease in this country, I support the registration.

I don't care where you think the problem lies, with the farmer, feed supplier, sale barn, processor or USDA inspectors. If an animal is discovered to have mad cow disease, that animal can be traced back to the farm that bred it and every stop in that animals life can be examined to find out where the problem is.

Microchip implants have been around for years. The AMHA has, in the past, talked about making it mandatory that all registered animals have a chip. This was long before the premises identification program so should we blame the AMHA for being behind this "plot" also?

Part of the problem here is that alot, not all, horse breeders (of any size, draft to miniature) think of their animals as pets and not as a business. Even if you raise 1 foal a year to sell or train horses for anyone else, then you have a business and you must be able to accept the regulations of the "livestock industry" just as the rest of us do.

"Big brother" is not watching you. The government is not trying to micromanage every individuals farm. They are trying to stop from happening here what happened in England several years ago when mad cow disease and hoof and mouth disease struck there and a vast majority of the cattle and sheep in that country were euthanized.

Before you get to worked up about a currently VOLUNTARY program, remember: when you go to show facilities, sale barns etc. (at least in Iowa) and you see the signs that say that the owners and handlers of domestic livestock are not legally liable or responsible for any injury that may occur to spectators, that is also the government protecting you as a livestock owner, and yes, miniature horses are livestock. I love my horses to pieces but I also realize that they are part of a multi-million dollar or billion dollar industry in this country and will be subject to regulations.

Kelly

 

[Lewella]

Before you get to worked up about a currently VOLUNTARY program, remember: when you go to show facilities, sale barns etc. (at least in Iowa) and you see the signs that say that the owners and handlers of domestic livestock are not legally liable or responsible for any injury that may occur to spectators, that is also the government protecting you as a livestock owner, and yes, miniature horses are livestock. I love my horses to pieces but I also realize that they are part of a multi-million dollar or billion dollar industry in this country and will be subject to regulations.

Those signs are a direct result of LOCAL HORSE COUNCILS (Iowa Horse Council in your case) lobbying STATE governments to protect horse owners from frivilous lawsuits! Not a good comparison in any way to tracking a horses every movement like NAIS would. And this isn't like the scrapie program - it IS going to cost farmers money. It IS going to put farmers out of business.

We dairy farm and like EVERY OTHER FOOD ANIMAL there are already programs in place that can trace FOOD ANIMALS back to the producer in the event of a disease outbreak within a matter or hours. I was just at an ADA meeting the other day where a presentation was made on antibiotics in meat and the presenters gave examples of how within hours of being tested at the processing plant antibiotic tainted meat can be traced back to the farm or origin - this all without NAIS!

Horses (in most states - Iowa is a notable exception here) have their Health Certificates and Coggins to track their movement (Iowa is one of the ONLY states in the country that does not require horses showing within that state to be Coggins tested! Iowa horses only have to be Coggins tested if they are going to go out of Iowa!). When there has been reportable disease outbreaks at shows and other events horses have been quickly tracked and quarantined to prevent the disease from spreading.

We have a good system in place - it isn't broke - why on earth is BIG BUSINESS managing to convince the government that we need to fix it? MONEY! The only farmers this may in any way benifit are the large corperate farms who are already favored by the processors and given more than the small indepenant farmer for the same product!

 

[mini1]

I would sure like to know how an animal can be "traced in hours to the producer" without any identification. We may buy several groups of all black calves from 2-3 different sale barns and they all come home into the same feedlot. How could anyone distinguish where any given calf came from with no I.D. When the calves go to the sale barn, the packer buys several groups of cattle from several different producers and takes them to the plant and unloads them into a holding pen with trailer loads of cattle from several other buyers from several other sale barns.

If you went to the grocery store and you had a choice of 2 different packages of hamburger, one was from the U.S. which has had very few confirmed cases of mad cow and the other was from Great Britain which had most of its cattle population die or be destroyed several years ago because the mad cow outbreak was so massive, which would you choose (the price is the same for both)? You would choose the one from the U.S. because it is safer and it is american made. Either way, you know where it is from because of identification.

And yes, the signs may be a result of local horse councils but who makes up the councils? Independant breeders. With all the lawyers in government, they could have easily made this go away. I mean look at all the lawsuits and monetary awards they just eliminated. This would have been a good way to get rid of the "annoying little breeders." The way our society wants to sue over every stupid little thing, the small breeders would have been done after one lawsuit and all the rest would have then been to scared to continue. This is the government protecting you also.

I don't want this to become an argument, I really don't. I enjoy spirited discussions and I really believe that everyone is entitled to their opinion and I believe that for them their opinion is right even if they are not the same as mine. I never say anyone is wrong or out of line because they don't have the same opinion as I do. However, I really do enjoy these spirited discussions. It is good sometimes to "get your hackles up" and thrash the daylights out of a topic. I just wanted this to be known before anyone gets offended or mad, that is not the intention.

Kelly

 

[Shari]

They had BSE in WA... two cases in fact. They were able to trace where the infected Cattle came from in the same time NAIS said they could.

There "are" programs in play now that do not take our rights away as animal owner.

For horses,, here in OR you have to have a Coggins, health Certificate AND a Brand Inspection by a different set up before you can transport your horse. They have to know where the horse is going and so on.

So if there is Disease..is easy to follow.

With NAIS.... it makes all of our animals part of the "National Herd", Please read on the NAIS gov what this means, to confirm.

It means... we loose all rights to our animals, that the Gov owns them, the Gov at any time can come in for "any" reason and take our animals. We do not have the right to Sue the Gov at all period.

Right now the current set up... we have rights, we have the right to protect our horses and stock and the right to sue the Gov if they over step their bounds. With NAIS...we have NO rights.

I was number 50 in the WA scrapie program. I read all that info.... is nothing like NAIS. I did not mind the Scarpie program... kept records anyway so was no bother.

And Again.... in the Scrapie program we had rights. We were not fined, they could not remove animals without proof and they could not take our land away.

The NAIS has the right to fine a person a lot of money if we do not report the movement of any animal with in 24 hours... no iscuses...even as stupid as a chicken crossing the road. If we do not properly report said movement ...not only could they take the animals away or fine us... they have the right to take our land away too.

This is Very serious... read the fine print to the NAIS program.

NAIS ..... Please read the whole Gov web site.

There are good programs already in place that do not take more of our rights away. The only people this program is going to hurt... is the good folks out there doing the right thing all ready. It will not help find disease faster than the programs already out there.

I raised sheep, chickens and ducks for years., horses off an on over the years... my Dad raised cattle and sheep. I had to get health Certificates and blood tests to ship my animals all over the country. Lots of paper work in fact. But NONE of it took my rights away as an animal owner.

 

[mcharr36]

My BP is so high at the moment I'm about to have a stroke.

 

[Minimor]

I have one word for it. Communism.

 

[mini1]

O.K. - After all the posts last night I got concerned that I had missed something so I went to the USDA website and looked up the NAIS. I read everything (and there was alot) they had regarding premises identification, animal identification and animal tracing. Nowhere did I see anything corroborating the statements and claims made in this thread.

Quote "The federal government has no plans to make this mandatory." Federal participation is VOLUNTARY however states may make mandatory if they see the need.

Some points:

1. Emphasis is on major food animals

2. These situations do not apply to tracing

a. moving pasture to pasture

b. if an animal "gets out"

c. from birth place to slaughter

d. local trail rides

e. local parades or fairs

3. Animal movement records are established when an owner or caretaker CHOOSES to report

If you check the equine working group report, this is the group of people setting the policies for the equine NAIS, it lists their recommendations for the program. There is to many to list but basically they say that all current ways of animal identification should remain. They also state that animal identification and tracing should remain voluntary but IF mandated should not be before 2010. So, when you go to a show or sale and take your health papers and/or negative coggins papers, that will be the way they trace your animals, this is nothing different that what has been done for the past 20, 30 years. The equine working group also recommended that if a program is put in place that grants and funding be available to keep the breeders, owners etc.. from bearing the cost.

There is way to much information on this website to list but the common thread through the whole thing is that it is VOLUNTARY and will remain so and you can participate in any of the three plans you choose, you can participate in 1, 2 or 3 parts of the plan.

I highly recommend that you go to the USDA website and read the information there. Don't read someone else's interpretation of the plan. Get both sides and make your own decision.

Kelly

 

[ruffian]

I have to agree with Kelly. This is purely voluntary and is an excellent way to track an animal back to the farm or feedlot it came from. We know about BSE, MCD and even tuberculosis, but what about the new diseases that crop up? This is a preventative program that can stop a terrible disease from ravaging a county or a country.

I am first in line to tell big brother to get off my land, but I am also willing to listen to reasonable requests.

 

[muffntuf]

Folks, the point being they say it is 'Voluntary' right now in the equine field - until 2010. It's 2008, that's only 23 months away!

And they are making this a state by state choice. But if 4 states have already made this mandatory - then the rest will cave in because they might miss government funding.

We have had in the past 10 years a lot of our food chain compromised - especially in the past year - remember the lettuce incident, the spinach incident???? How about the meats? The spinach incident took the longest to trace back - I think it was like 5 days, but they did trace it back and they figured out why the spinach was tainted.

We have systems in place. I don't like this idea of NAIS - maybe for food chain programs I could stretch my inclination - but we don't eat equine in these states!!!

I did send an email to my state senator - the government has been doing some silly things in the past year - If we don't speak up, we could very well end up having to cow tail to their regulations - the Equine Industry is the 5th largest national gross product in this country - we do have power - we just need to exercise it. What happened if this industry went away?

 

[Sarah's Little Blessings]

Well, time to put my two cents into the picture, as I am one that is TOTALLY against the program.

My reasons are simple,just about anything that goes MANDATORY is wrong, its taking the people's choices away and I for one don't want that to happen. Secondly, if this does go through which I am praying to God it doesn't, what will be next? I mean honestly I am sure that the USDA is looking to lessen outbreaks by doing this, however what will be next? I have already read of people have chips in them in some country's just to work, why not us next? I mean if one thing goes mandatory, then the next does, then in a few years we'll be puppets on a string doing exactly what the people "higher then us" wants, with no choices. If they want that they have robots now(or at least some robotics), use them! Anyways, I am totally against the mandatory program. I may ride the fence with a voluntary program, but not mandatory. Thats just my two cents worth.

Oh, and not being able to buy hay in some places unless you are registered? HELLO!!

It just looks like we as a people could do something to make sure that a mandatory system never gets placed in this country in which so many people gave their lives, and still are giving their lives for FREEDOM(don't see anywhere where we are suppose to be made to do something)

And for those that think a mandatory system can't happen-it can.

Ok, for sure I am shutting up now, keep posting-Sarah

Folks, the point being they say it is 'Voluntary' right now in the equine field - until 2010. It's 2008, that's only 23 months away!

And they are making this a state by state choice. But if 4 states have already made this mandatory - then the rest will cave in because they might miss government funding.

We have had in the past 10 years a lot of our food chain compromised - especially in the past year - remember the lettuce incident, the spinach incident???? How about the meats? The spinach incident took the longest to trace back - I think it was like 5 days, but they did trace it back and they figured out why the spinach was tainted.

We have systems in place. I don't like this idea of NAIS - maybe for food chain programs I could stretch my inclination - but we don't eat equine in these states!!!

I did send an email to my state senator - the government has been doing some silly things in the past year - If we don't speak up, we could very well end up having to cow tail to their regulations - the Equine Industry is the 5th largest national gross product in this country - we do have power - we just need to exercise it. What happened if this industry went away?

I second this, completely!!!!!

 

[Shari]

Last NAIS reading I did was 2 months ago... then what I say is correct. Makes me wish I had copied the web site every time I have read it in the last 2 years.

And it is really Not Voluntary. To show, sell or move any animal off the farm...you have to be part of the program period. Lots of people I know right now are going through this. So it is not Voluntary.

Just went to web site...which they have revamped a whole lot. They have removed what I have read before...but it does not mean those issues do not still stand.

Also gone from the site... the detail about how many animals you need to have of one species to qualify for the group/lot identification. I do remember it was much higher than any small Farm holder would ever have on their place.

Alot of the detailed info is no longer on the site. How ever it also doesn't say it has resinded(spell?) the previous rulings.

Because I have been reading their web site for a couple of years. I would need in "writting" that they will not implement what I have said above in a later date for me to trust the NAIS at all.

Does look like they have toned down the rulings and requirements...... for the time being. Time will tell.

Added: I am going to request the full text document,, so will see.

(Question for you Kelly. Did you read the NAIS site when it still had, that it would be required to "Ear Tag" horses? Or that if you take your horse or what ever to the mail box right across a country lane(just using that as an example),, you would have to report said moment within 24 hours? And what said penalites would be if you did not comply?

What their site looks like now makes more sense but a lot of us have read it many times in the past and it wasn't all "goodness and light" back then, like it is now.)

 

[mini1]

O.K. what I am getting from all of your posts is that there is a giant conspiracy perpetrated by the government targeting all small breeders of horses in order to eliminate them from participating in the joy of owning animals?

I did not read the site when it talked about ear tagging horses and everything else you are claiming so is this now a cover-up by the federal government trying to hide the information they "accidentally" revealed 2 months ago? There is a page showing the ainmal identification tags available and not one is for horses! Again, read the equine workgroup reports, they are recommending that all current policies remain the same for horses (health papers, coggins papers, brands) etc for identifying animals because of the sheer number of horses and the amount of travel that they do. The year 2010 was only IF and a big if it was made mandatory.

No, it clearly states on their website that the animal identification and tracing is VOLUNTARY and that it is intended to keep track of animals when they come into contact with animals from other premises in order to more quickly and efficiently stop the spread of disease. This DOES NOT APPLY to local trail rides, parades, shows etc... so I think we could safely say that riding your horse to the mailbox across the lane would not be subject to federal fines and punishment It is also stated in black and white on their web site that to track every movement of every animal is not feasible.

As far as worrying about what may or may not happen in 2,3,4 or 50 years from now is just borrowing trouble and getting people worked up unnecessarily.

Everyone needs to remember also, this program is not in place yet, it is still being developed, there will be alot of changes made before it is finalized. Apparently some of the changes have been made already and they have been for the better as per your acknowledgement of the change in the website and the elimination of some of the ideas.

Kelly

 

[Jean_B]

VERY well stated...and a voice of well-thought out reason based on information rather than passion!! Thank you.

I am going to try very hard to keep from sounding as furious as I am about several things in this post.

First my husband and I produce cattle and sheep as well as have a few horses as pets. The comparison to a sex offender is apalling. Don't EVER lump me or my husband in the same category as those degenerates I don't care what point you are trying to make!!!

The premises registration has been in effect for YEARS for sheep producers due to the need to try to eradicate scrapies which is a distant cousin to mad cow disease. It does not cost me a thing to register my farm with the state and they provide the I.D. tags with my farm number. I do not have to report anything to the Federal Government as to when my animals move.

As far as our cattle go the registration IS voluntary and I have registered with our state. As someone whose income is in part from livestock production and someone who has seen and felt the effects (a plummet in cattle prices) of a discovery of mad cow disease in this country, I support the registration.

I don't care where you think the problem lies, with the farmer, feed supplier, sale barn, processor or USDA inspectors. If an animal is discovered to have mad cow disease, that animal can be traced back to the farm that bred it and every stop in that animals life can be examined to find out where the problem is.

Microchip implants have been around for years. The AMHA has, in the past, talked about making it mandatory that all registered animals have a chip. This was long before the premises identification program so should we blame the AMHA for being behind this "plot" also?

Part of the problem here is that alot, not all, horse breeders (of any size, draft to miniature) think of their animals as pets and not as a business. Even if you raise 1 foal a year to sell or train horses for anyone else, then you have a business and you must be able to accept the regulations of the "livestock industry" just as the rest of us do.

"Big brother" is not watching you. The government is not trying to micromanage every individuals farm. They are trying to stop from happening here what happened in England several years ago when mad cow disease and hoof and mouth disease struck there and a vast majority of the cattle and sheep in that country were euthanized.

Before you get to worked up about a currently VOLUNTARY program, remember: when you go to show facilities, sale barns etc. (at least in Iowa) and you see the signs that say that the owners and handlers of domestic livestock are not legally liable or responsible for any injury that may occur to spectators, that is also the government protecting you as a livestock owner, and yes, miniature horses are livestock. I love my horses to pieces but I also realize that they are part of a multi-million dollar or billion dollar industry in this country and will be subject to regulations.

Kelly