Rebellion over an ID plan
What they were emphatically not doing, said Jay Platt, the third-generation proprietor of the ranch, was abiding by a federally recommended livestock identification plan, intended to speed the tracing of animal diseases, that has caused an uproar among ranchers. They were not attaching the recommended tags with microchips that would allow the computerized recording of livestock movements from birth to the slaughterhouse.
“This plan is expensive, it’s intrusive, and there’s no need for it,” Mr. Platt said.
The New York Times reports that not even cattle need Real ID in”Rebellion on the Range Over a Cattle ID Plan.” There’s a web site, NoNAIS.org which is tracking things like
Oklahoma is now mandating Premises ID for anyone wanting participate in the Swine Shows. One more tricky little way that they make “voluntary” into mandatory.
Image: IstockPhoto [link to http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/animals/farm-animals/4328400-bar-code-cow.php?id=4328400 no longer works]
The National Animal ID System plan is appalling in how it has been promulgated. The U.S. Government is suggesting that anyone with a subject animal register their home as a “premise” regardless of the nature or use of the animal.
The potential impact on horse owners is completely out of proportion to the prospective benefit. Imagine if you had to fill out a request form and ask the Government every time you wanted to take your bicycle to a bike race. That’s essentially what they’re expecting horse owners to do. There are already self-policed (and occasionally state-mandated) rules about current disease test results that must be presented to show officials whenever a horse is to participate in a show venue with other horses.
The problem with the NAIS is that it seems to have been enacted (in the case of horses) for two reasons:
1- to make marketing easier for the handful (2-4) companies (none of whom are U.S. headquartered) breeding horses here for slaughter as human food. That amounts to fewer than 3% of the horses in the U.S.
2- to “help” USDA/DHS trace outbreaks of hypothetical animal-borne bioterrorism
While both may in some way have a benefit, it’s completely out of proportion to the costs, in terms of time, paperwork, privacy impacts and process friction on an industry that is avocational in large part.
And that’s just horses.
The process by which the public was given (or not given) notice of the proposed rule seems to have been somewhat disingenuous as well.
Disclaimer: My family owns a horse and I’m not looking forward to how this plays out.