We can stop the National Animal Identification System

Stop the National Animal ID System

Ron Paul, May 29, 2006

The House of Representatives recently passed funding for a new federal mandate that threatens to put thousands of small farmers and ranchers out of business. The National Animal Identification System, known as NAIS, is an expensive and unnecessary federal program that requires owners of livestock-- cattle, dairy, poultry, and even horses-- to tag animals with electronic tracking devices. The intrusive monitoring system amounts to nothing more than a tax on livestock owners, allowing the federal government access to detailed information about their private property.

In typical Washington-speak, NAIS is "voluntary"--provided USDA bureaucrats are satisfied with the level of cooperation. Trust me, NAIS will be mandatory within a few years. When was the last time a new federal program did not expand once implemented?

As usual, Congress is spending millions of dollars creating a complex non-solution to a very simple problem. NAIS will cost taxpayers at least $33 million for starters.

Agribusiness giants support NAIS, because they want the federal government to create a livestock database and provide free industry data. But small and independent livestock owners face a costly mandate if NAIS becomes law.

Larger livestock operations will be able to tag whole groups of animals with one ID device. Smaller ranchers and farmers, however, will be forced to tag each individual animal, at a cost of anywhere from $3 to $20 per head. And NAIS applies to anyone with a single horse, pig, chicken, or goat in the backyard--no exceptions. NAIS applies to children in 4-H or FFA. Once NAIS becomes mandatory, any failure to report and tag an animal subjects the owner to $1,000 per day fines.

NAIS also forces livestock owners to comply with new paperwork and monitoring regulations. These farmers and ranchers literally will be paying for an assault on their property and privacy rights, as NAIS empowers federal agents to enter and seize property without a warrant-- a blatant violation of the 4th amendment.

NAIS is not about preventing mad cow or other diseases. States already have animal identification systems in place, and virtually all stockyards issue health certificates. Since most contamination happens after animals have been sold, tracing them back to the farm or ranch that sold them won’t help find the sources of disease.

More than anything, NAIS places our family farmers and ranchers at an economic disadvantage against agribusiness and overseas competition. As dairy farmer and rancher Bob Parker stated, NAIS is "too intrusive, too costly, and will be devastating to small farmers and ranchers."

NAIS means more government, more regulations, more fees, more federal spending, less privacy, and diminished property rights. It’s exactly the kind of federal program every conservative, civil libertarian, animal lover, businessman, farmer, and rancher should oppose. The House has already acted, but there’s still time to tell the Senate to dump NAIS. Please call your Senators and tell them you oppose spending even one dime on the NAIS program in the 2007 agriculture appropriations bill.

Congressman Ron Paul, a Republican, represents the 14th Congressional District of Texas, which encompasses the Gulf Coast region south and west of Houston.

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Contact your Congress critters and tell them you think NAIS is a bad idea. If you are a city dweller, think of NAIS like this. You have a dog that you like to take for walks. Some new government rules come along and suddenly you find yourself being forced to report whenever you take your dog for a walk. You have to make note of all the properties you cross over on your walk and on your way back home. If you meet other dogs or cats along the way you need to record those numbers so that you can comply with the rules. When you get home you have to report all those numbers by telephone or internet and there will be heck to pay if you get just one number wrong (misreporting). If you don't do it you'll have to pay a fine.

Does that make it clear in your mind?

Hen

Hello VT Agency of Agriculture blog readers

About once a week someone from state.vt.us drops by my blog. Hello! Welcome! Hope you read all my posts.

Just so you, Mr or Mrs State.VT.US, know, the NAIS was affected in the recent Appropriations Bill.

Bill Language from the House Agriculture Appropriations Bill (passed full House 5/23/06):

"none of the funds appropriated under this heading for the National Animal Identification program may be obligated until the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives receives from the Secretary a complete and detailed plan for the National Animal Identification System, including, but not limited to, proposed legislative changes, cost estimates, and means of program evaluation, and such plan is published as an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register for comment by interested parties"

Report Language from the House Agriculture Appropriations Bill (passed full House 5/23/06):

"Animal Identification.-Through fiscal year 2006, a total of $84,700,000 has been provided for a National Animal Identification System. Of that amount, approximately $27,000,000 has been used for cooperative agreements with states and Tribes to assist in registration. The fiscal year 2007 request is for $33,107,000. Until August 2005, the Department had stated that program data would be held centrally; however, the Secretary announced in August that data would be held by private entities that meet certain requirements. In addition, the program is voluntary, but there have been mixed signals about participation becoming mandatory in the future. At least one state has made data collection compulsory, and states have the discretion to charge fees for registration. Given these management challenges, and the fact that just 10 percent of the premises have been registered, the Committee has concerns about the program. Premises identification is a necessary building block, but in itself does not offer any means of animal traceback. The Committee feels that all interested parties would benefit from a transparent (oh, Mr. Kerr, there's that pesky word again) process of decision making on the national plans for animal identification and therefore requires that the Secretary use an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to state the Administration's plans for animal identification, and to solicit feedback from all interested parties."

Representative Ron Paul's Amendment: This failed though the wording in the Appropriations Bill (above) does stall the issue.

15.H.AMDT.885 to H.R.5384
Title: An amendment numbered 4 printed in the Congressional Record to prohibit the use of funds from being made available to implement or administer the National Animal Identification System.
Sponsor: Rep Paul, Ron [R-TX-14] (introduced 5/23/2006) Cosponsors: (none)
Latest Major Action: 5/23/2006 House amendment not agreed to. Status: On agreeing to the Paul amendment (A015) Failed by recorded vote: 34 - 389 (Roll no. 184)

Hen

Vermont Agency of Agriculture Speaks Out About Their Plans To Kill Backyard Flocks.

These words are from Mark Bosma, Public Information Officer for Vermont's Agency of Agriculture. He posted them to a newsgroup. My comments are in italics.

There are three reasons why the entire flock will be depopulated with a confirmed positive case of High Path AI, even if all the birds are not showing clinical signs.

1. The virus can persist in the remaining birds and you never can get rid of it out of the premises.

So, in other words a virus never leaves a premises? Why that is the biggest load of crap I have ever heard. Talk about making up "facts" and spinning them. This is from a Malaysian news article:

LIFESPAN

Dr Kamaruddin said the virus has a rather short life span outside its host and the longest they could survive is about four days or 96 hours.

He said virus in droppings of chickens, ducks and birds that died in shady areas can survive up to four days while that in water-logged areas like lakes and mine pools under direct sunlight can live up to three days.

"As for virus in the carcass of the host that is exposed to sunlight, its lifespan is about 30 minutes.

"The virus is sensitive to antiseptics like the lysol spray and even soaps and handwashes," said the veterinary surgeon."



2. There is some concern that as the virus persist it can drift and/or shift into a more virulent strain that can jeopardize the health of the farmer. Pandemic Concerns

How about driving a car? That can jeopardize the health of the driver. How is it that people who are so terrified of AI, that has killed just over 100 people, aren't scared to death getting into a car when there are 54 thousand deaths each year from car accidents? It boggles my mind.

3. Our trading partners will demand that we depopulate the farm infected with HPAI in order to resume trade. The international community calls this practice "stamping out" of the virus.

"Our trading partners"? I don't have any trading partners. I don't care about the international community. This international community is what has gotten the US in so much trouble as it is.

I hope this helps,
Mark

Yeah, Mark, you are a huge help.

Hen, with ruffled feathers.

Vermont and "We only want Premises ID, really, why don't you believe us?"

We have a Yahoo Group, Vermont Against NAIS , one of many state specific list discussion groups, people from all over fighting against National Animal Identification System. Anyway, our newest member is Mark Bosma, the Public Information Officer for the Agency of Agriculture (AoA). We really didn't want him to come in as a member, but when I realized that he has been reading the posts all along it seemed silly to not have him join. Boy, his presence, like an elephant in the living room, has stopped the conversations cold. Mark has said he is there is answer questions, but he is selective about which questions he will answer. The mantra of the AoA is "we want premises id only", but we keep finding information to the contrary. Mark seems surprised that we don't believe them.

If you'd like to find you own state's specific group fighting against NAIS click over to nonais.org, scroll down and look on the right side bar.