Stop Animal ID
Federal & State Bills in Congress, the States, and USDA?s Actions
Congress is considering legislation (currently, HR 3170, and two
companion bills HR 1256 and HR 1254) that will virtually destroy
livestock farmers, and make recreational livestock activities a thing
of the past. Also, each year the Farm Bill funds NAIS in some
way. Livestock producers ? large, medium, and small, owners of
backyard flocks, hobbyists and individuals raising show birds,
horses, and other animals may soon be subjected to regulations
under this proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS).
And, even though this legislation has not been passed, the US
Department of Agriculture is implementing NAIS on a so-called
voluntary basis. As if this wasn?t enough, many states are
establishing their own universal animal identification programs
designed after NAIS.
Animals Included:
? Cattle
? Sheep
? Pigs
? Poultry (chickens &
waterfowl)
? Goats
? Horses
? Llamas
? Alpacas
? Deer
? Elk
? Bison
and working dogs are now included.
What NAIS Requires
Under the proposed legislation, you will be required to identify EVERY bird, horse, goat, sheep, pig or cow you own
with either an expensive microchip like those injected under the skin of dogs (estimated cost $15-30 per chip), or (for birds) a 13- or 15-digit leg band. You will be required to register every animal with a central database that will include the animal?s identification number, plus a ?property identification number? (essentially, your address).
Banding/microchipping will commence at hatching for poultry.
NAIS is wrong because:
? It?s designed for marketing purposes ? in which case the market should govern
? The database is impossible to design, build, or maintain, with 100?s of millions of annual reports
? Tagging costs will be absurd - in poultry it will be 8 times the cost of an individual bird
? It won?t control disease, just build a bureaucracy
? It will cost more than real disease control methods
NAIS is Already Being Implemented
The government has already started assigning ID numbers to farms, members of NPIP, Scrapies program, etc. States are being encouraged to register farms, and are receiving funding from USDA to get registrations. Citizens are not told NAIS is voluntary. Feed stores around the country are requiring citizens to give their names and addresses when they buy livestock feed. Secretary Johanns has said that USDA won?t wait for Congress ? it no longer believes that Congress must act first, passing laws.
To get a petition go to: http://arkansasanimalproducers.8k.com/about.html
for more information go to: http://arkansasanimalproducers.8k.com/index.html
