Registering our chickens?!

[jackclucker]

I saw on the news this morning that the state of North Carolina was demanding that all poultry owner must register their chickens. They say this includes poultry farmers with over 200 birds all the way down to back yard flocks of any number. This is supposedly to help fight the chicken flu or what ever it is called. Honestly this scares me a little bit. Granted I may be over thinking it a bit but I don't feel that they should be able to make me pay to raise a couple of chickens. The whole point of raising chickens myself was to save money for my family. I feel that my chickens are safe in my yard as long as they stay there, they shouldn't be exposed. I guess what I really want to know is if anybody has dealt with registering their flock and what has come of it? If any thing at all at this point? Asheville city has a registration fee and an annual fee for all registered owners. I do not live in Asheville but it is pretty close and the news said that registering is now a state wide demand. I am torn over the issue, should I register now or lay low for as long as possible?

 

[Amina]

I think for now registration is free. Of course, who knows when that might change.

And for now, as far as I know, there is no penalty for not registering.

Personally, it makes me nervous to have officials coming out to my place... who's to say they will use strict biosecurity protocols when going between flocks? There are a lot of nasty chicken diseases, including avian flu, that I do not want my chickens to get.

Also, I have seen a thread on BYC where a healthy flock (tested negative for avian flu) was nearly put down by officials as a "just in case" measure. That's another thing that I really do not want to happen to me.

On the other hand, I do see where they have a legitimate reason to want to know where this thing has spread to. And if my flock had avian flu symptoms, then I would want to get them tested, and put them all down if they tested positive. That's just the right thing to do. It would be a tragedy to spread it to anyone else's flock.

I don't have an answer for you, but these are some things you might want to consider.