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NAIS National Animal Identification system-proposed for US for ALL
livestock, regardless of size of farm or quantity of animals.

Please read on if you are interested in a good summary of the
implications of a national animal ID system and the famer raising the
animals.  Also, this weekend there will be educational presentations in
Northbranch MI on  Fri and Davisburg on Sat (see press release for
details). From Pat Whetham and Kim Lockard.

 

________________________________

From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 8:47 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Important issue!! FWD: Presentations on National Animal ID
System
Importance: High

 

The animal identification system proposed for the entire country is an
important issue for farmers and consumers. If you produce (or hope to
some day) any livestock, including just a handful of chickens for eggs,
you will be expected to comply in a few years if nothing changes. the
burden of complying will be such that small producers are driven out,
leaving the production of meat, milk and eggs to the large scale
producers who do such a poor job of it now. If you can't attend a
presentation Please find the websites and add your name to the various
petitions against NAIS or contact your senators and congressional
representatives immediately to tell them you oppose the implementation
of NAIS. Let your state reps know also.

 

Attached is the press release about the presentations this weekend.

 

PatWhetham 

 

In a message dated 9/13/2006 9:14:39 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

	Hello Everyone,

	You are receiving this email because I'd like to make you aware
of some upcoming informational presentations on NAIS (National Animal ID
System).

	 

	Many feel that lack of knowledge about this program is the stong
point it's supporters are counting on for implementation.  It has very
serious implications for all of us-- farmers & consumers alike.
Attached is a press release and 2 flyiers, one for North Branch and one
for the Growing Connections Festival, that I hope you will read and
distribute to others. 

	 

	For more info on the topic go to www.LibertyArk.net
<http://www.libertyark.net/>  ; please consider signing their petition.
I have pasted some info from the website below. 

	 

	Thank you.  Kim Lockard 

	 

	 the nais story<http://libertyark.net/art/story.jpg> 

	If fully adopted and implemented, the likely outcome of NAIS is
that animal ownership increasingly will be limited to large entities who
can afford to comply and who are willing to accept the governmental
intrusion. Yet this "feel good" program will do virtually nothing to
safeguard animal health, its alleged purpose. Rather, NAIS will do all
of the following: 

	*	drive small producers and their supporting suppliers
(feed stores, auction houses, etc) out of existence 
	*	make people abandon raising animals for their own food
and as pets 
	*	invade Americans' personal privacy to a degree never
before tolerated 
	*	deprive Americans of their property rights 
	*	violate the religious freedom of Americans whose beliefs
make it impossible for them to comply 
	*	cost the American economy far more than it will deliver 

	So what is this program and how did it develop? 

	History 

	The concept of an electronic national animal identification
system was started back in the early 1990s, by technology companies
seeking to expand their market, and large agricultural entities seeking
to protect their ability to sell their mass produced meat on the world
market. 

	Their efforts culminated in 2002, when the National Institute
for Animal Agriculture (NIAA) proposed that the USDA develop a "national
animal identification system" (NAIS). While NIAA may sound like a public
interest organization, its membership reads like a who's who in
industrial agriculture and technology, including entities such as
Cargill Pork, Tyson, National Pork Producers Council, and Global Vet
Link. 

	Notably, the NIAA developed the national animal identification
system more than a year and a half before the first case of Mad Cow was
found in the U.S. Over the course of three years, USDA and NIAA worked
together to develop the NAIS and inform the large-scale livestock
producer community, while ignoring hundreds of thousands of people who
will be affected. 

	The Federal Plan 

	After it took up the task from Industry, the USDA developed the
plan through working groups, made up of representatives from government
agencies, large agribusinesses, and technology companies. Notably absent
from these workgroups were any significant representatives of pet
owners, recreational animal owners, and small farmers and ranchers. Much
of the work of these workgroups has yet to be completed, yet industry is
rushing to make this program mandatory and implemented nationwide,
without regard to the price to be paid by consumers and the average
animal owner. 

	On April 25, 2005, the USDA released "Draft Program Standards"
("Standards") and a "Draft Strategic Plan" ("Plan") for the NAIS. The
Standards and Plan have no authority in law. The USDA has stated that
the Animal Health Protection Act of 2002 is the source of its authority.
(Plan at 9.) But that statute addresses only the import and export of
animals, interstate travel, quarantines areas, and related programs. Two
Congresses have tried, but failed to pass legislation that would amend
the Act to provide for a mandatory electronic tracking system for
individual head of livestock. USDA is operating without authority from
Congress. Currently, there are three bills in Congress, trying to give
postdated authority to this assault on our freedom. The existence of
these bills proves that there is no Congressional authority for USDA to
establish a mandatory animal identification system. 

	USDA, various state agencies, and many private companies who
have vested financial interests in seeing NAIS adopted have tried to
present an image of the NAIS as a sensible, practical plan to address
animal disease. A review of the government's plan, however, shows quite
the opposite. The current NAIS Plan provides: 

	*	Premises registration: Every person who owns even one
horse, cow, pig, chicken, sheep, goat, deer, elk, bison, or virtually
any livestock animal, will be forced to register their home, including
owner's name, address, and telephone number, and keyed to Global
Positioning System coordinates, in a government database under a 7-digit
"premises ID number." (Standards, pp. 3-4, 10-12; Plan, p. 5.)
Additionally, pet owners who own one parakeet, canary, cockatiel, etc.
as owners of "exotic fowl" have been targeted for mandatory inclusion in
this system. If you buy a pet bird after this system is put into effect,
it probably will already have an Animal Identification Number. It will
be registered to you, and you must register your premises (wherever you
keep the bird). If you move the bird off your "premises" for any reason,
or it dies, or it produces more birds, you must report such activity to
the federal government within 24 hours. In Texas, there was a staff
recommendation to hold off on mandatory registration of exotic fowl kept
as pets, until a disease was suspected, then they will implement
mandatory registration. However, that recommendation is on hold until
TAHC decides what path it will take. 
	*	Animal Identification: Every animal will have to be
assigned a 15-digit ID number by the government. The form of ID will
most likely be a tag or microchip containing a Radio Frequency
Identification Device (RFID), designed to be read from a distance.
(Plan, p. 10; Standards, pp. 6, 12, 20, 27-28.) The plan may also
include collecting the DNA of every animal and/or a retinal scan of
every animal. (Plan, p.13.) Despite the announcement that a federal
mandatory database might be put off, USDA maintains detailed information
on the structure of these 15-digit ID numbers as of mid-March 2006,
ostensibly so that ID manufacturers could normalize their numbering
systems. Some animals such as pigs and poultry, owned by large
producers, may have a "group" identifier assigned instead of an
individual number for each animal, as described below. 
	*	While some state agencies and industry actors have
pointed to the provision for "group numbers" for poultry and swine,
small farmers do not manage their animals in ways that would qualify.
Group or lot identification can only be used where groups of animals are
managed together from birth to death and never commingled with other
animals. (Standards pp.5-6.) This provision is tailored for confinement
poultry operations, not pastured poultry operations. If animals do not
meet the requirements for group identification, they will have to be
individually identified. 
	*	Animal Tracking: The owner will be required to report:
the birthdate of an animal, the application of every animal's ID tag,
every time an animal leaves or enters the property, every time an animal
loses a tag, every time a tag is replaced, the slaughter or death of an
animal, or if any animal is missing. Also, every time an animal goes
onto or off of another person's premises, a report would be required,
showing that the tagged animal had been on each of these other premises.
Such events must be reported within 24 hours. (Standards, pp. 12-13,
17-21.) 
	*	Third parties, such as veterinarians, will be required
to report "sightings" of animals who do not have ID numbers. (Standards,
p. 25.) In other words, if a farmer or rancher calls a vet to their
property to treat an animal, and the vet finds any animal without the
mandatory 15-digit computer-readable ID, the vet may be required to
report that non-compliance. 
	*	There are no exceptions; under the USDA plan; livestock
owners will be forced to register and report even if they raise animals
only for their own food or keep horses for draft or for transportation. 
	*	The USDA will exercise "enforcement" against livestock
farmers who don't comply. (Standards, p. 7; Plan, p. 17.) As an example
of what can be expected, the proposed Texas regulations for mandatory
premises registration provide for fines of up to $1,000 per day and
criminal penalties. 


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