Public Service Announcement
Do you raise animals for food? Have pets? Shop at Farmers' markets or small organic producers of meat? Buy yarn or fiber from small production companies/farms that raise sheep, llama, alpaca, angora rabbits or goats? Then this announcement applies to you. Please read and sign the petition if you agree, and then write to your US senators and your US representative and ask them to oppose this. Also, please feel free to copy this post and post it on your blog.
Small farmers and backyard flock/herd keepers are facing a serious threat
to their way of life. The government is proposing a Mandatory Property and
Animal Surveillance Program that will require the registration of property
and individual animals, even if you have only one chicken, pig, cow, etc.
This must be stopped, or all small farmers will be driven out of business.
Help Stop the USDA from Taking Away Our Livestock and Our Pets
Poultry keepers and small farmers are facing a serious threat from a
proposed government intrusion in to their pastimes and way of life. For
quite a while now, the USDA has been working with the very largest scale animal industry
organizations ( for example, The National Pork Producers, Monsanto Company,
and Cargill Meat) to develop a mandatory "National Animal Identification
System" (NAIS).
Most small scale livestock producers, people who raise animals for their own
food, and people who keep horses and livestock as companion animals do not
know about this. The NAIS will drive small producers out of the market, will
force people to stop raising animals for their own food, and will invade our
privacy to an extreme degree. It will violate the religious freedoms of
Americans whose beliefs make it impossible for them to comply, and will
destroy the last vestiges of animal welfare from the production of animals
for food.
On April 25, 2005,the USDA released "Draft Program Standards" and a "Draft
Strategic Plan" concerning the NAIS. If you think the description below to
bizarre to be true, please go to usda.gov/nais and read the Standards and
Plan and check the citations for yourself.
By January 1, 2008, the NAIS will be mandatory.(Plan,pp. 2,10,17) Every
person who owns even one horse, cow ,pig, chicken, sheep, pigeon, or
virtually any livestock animal, will be forced to register their home,
including the owners name, address and phone number, and keyed to Global
Positioning System coordinates for satellite monitoring in a giant federal
database under a 7-digit "premises id number." St., pp. 3-4, 10-12; Plan,
p.5)
Every animal will be assigned a 15 digit I.D. number, also to be kept in a
federal database. The id will likely be a tag or microchip containing a
Radio Frequency Device, designed to be read from a distance. (Plan, p.10;
St.,pp.6,12,20,27-28.) The plan may include collecting the DNA of every
animal and /or a retinal scan.
The owner will be required to report the birthdate of every animal, the
application of every animal's id tag, every time an animal enters or leaves
the property, every time an animal loses a tag, every time a tag is
replaced, the slaughter or death of an animal, if any animal is missing.
These events must be reported within 24 hours.
Third parties, like veterinarians, will be required to report "sightings" of
animals. For example, if you have a vet on your property to treat a sick
animal, and the vet sees any animal without the mandatory 15-digit computer
readable id, the vet will be required to report you.
If you do not comply, the USDA will exorcise "enforcement" against you. The
USDA hasn't specified the nature of "enforcement" as of yet, but it will
probably include fines and/or seizing your animals. There are no exceptions
- under this plan you will be forced to register an report even if you raise
animals only for your own food or keep horses for draft or transportation.
What you can do:
Small scale keepers of poultry and other livestock can take action to create
an effective movement in opposition to the USDA plan. First, small scale
livestock owners should not participate in any "voluntary" state or federal
program to register farms or animals. The USDA is making farmers willingness
to participate in a "voluntary" program as a justification for making the
program mandatory. ( See Plan, "Executive Summary" and pp.7-8) Small farmers
and livestock owners can also help to inform and organize others. The USDA
presently does not plan to finalize it's rules for mandatory id until the
summer of 2006. There is still time to make your voice heard. Please, sign
this petition and let the USDA know we will not stand for having our right,
freedoms, and personal privacy taken away. Thank you.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/369063795?ltl=1136227578
Small farmers and backyard flock/herd keepers are facing a serious threat
to their way of life. The government is proposing a Mandatory Property and
Animal Surveillance Program that will require the registration of property
and individual animals, even if you have only one chicken, pig, cow, etc.
This must be stopped, or all small farmers will be driven out of business.
Help Stop the USDA from Taking Away Our Livestock and Our Pets
Poultry keepers and small farmers are facing a serious threat from a
proposed government intrusion in to their pastimes and way of life. For
quite a while now, the USDA has been working with the very largest scale animal industry
organizations ( for example, The National Pork Producers, Monsanto Company,
and Cargill Meat) to develop a mandatory "National Animal Identification
System" (NAIS).
Most small scale livestock producers, people who raise animals for their own
food, and people who keep horses and livestock as companion animals do not
know about this. The NAIS will drive small producers out of the market, will
force people to stop raising animals for their own food, and will invade our
privacy to an extreme degree. It will violate the religious freedoms of
Americans whose beliefs make it impossible for them to comply, and will
destroy the last vestiges of animal welfare from the production of animals
for food.
On April 25, 2005,the USDA released "Draft Program Standards" and a "Draft
Strategic Plan" concerning the NAIS. If you think the description below to
bizarre to be true, please go to usda.gov/nais and read the Standards and
Plan and check the citations for yourself.
By January 1, 2008, the NAIS will be mandatory.(Plan,pp. 2,10,17) Every
person who owns even one horse, cow ,pig, chicken, sheep, pigeon, or
virtually any livestock animal, will be forced to register their home,
including the owners name, address and phone number, and keyed to Global
Positioning System coordinates for satellite monitoring in a giant federal
database under a 7-digit "premises id number." St., pp. 3-4, 10-12; Plan,
p.5)
Every animal will be assigned a 15 digit I.D. number, also to be kept in a
federal database. The id will likely be a tag or microchip containing a
Radio Frequency Device, designed to be read from a distance. (Plan, p.10;
St.,pp.6,12,20,27-28.) The plan may include collecting the DNA of every
animal and /or a retinal scan.
The owner will be required to report the birthdate of every animal, the
application of every animal's id tag, every time an animal enters or leaves
the property, every time an animal loses a tag, every time a tag is
replaced, the slaughter or death of an animal, if any animal is missing.
These events must be reported within 24 hours.
Third parties, like veterinarians, will be required to report "sightings" of
animals. For example, if you have a vet on your property to treat a sick
animal, and the vet sees any animal without the mandatory 15-digit computer
readable id, the vet will be required to report you.
If you do not comply, the USDA will exorcise "enforcement" against you. The
USDA hasn't specified the nature of "enforcement" as of yet, but it will
probably include fines and/or seizing your animals. There are no exceptions
- under this plan you will be forced to register an report even if you raise
animals only for your own food or keep horses for draft or transportation.
What you can do:
Small scale keepers of poultry and other livestock can take action to create
an effective movement in opposition to the USDA plan. First, small scale
livestock owners should not participate in any "voluntary" state or federal
program to register farms or animals. The USDA is making farmers willingness
to participate in a "voluntary" program as a justification for making the
program mandatory. ( See Plan, "Executive Summary" and pp.7-8) Small farmers
and livestock owners can also help to inform and organize others. The USDA
presently does not plan to finalize it's rules for mandatory id until the
summer of 2006. There is still time to make your voice heard. Please, sign
this petition and let the USDA know we will not stand for having our right,
freedoms, and personal privacy taken away. Thank you.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/369063795?ltl=1136227578
posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits | 9:57 AM
1 Comments:
I've read the entire document of the proposed plan. I think it sounds pretty good. If you do buy or sell livestock, you have to participate; it's very important to be able to trace livestock to track animal disease outbreaks. I don't really see anything within the proposal as it stands that takes away the rights of any livestock owners to do anything - small scale or otherwise.
The rationale for making the voluntary program mandatory is that, just as one example, we can not track diseases like oh, say, Mad Cow disease, unless we have 100% participation. Right now, not everyone participates, and it's a problem. You can't account for every sick cow. Lots of them slip under the radar. With a mandatory system this would be much more difficult.
I have been wishing we had a mandatory national animal ID system (like Canada does) for quite some time, personally.
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