Attn BYC! Heard of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS)?

cjeanean

Can't Decide
11 Years
Mar 5, 2008
2,643
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201
Missouri
Has anyone heard of this???? I just recently found out about it, and as a first time chicken addict I was a little upset!!! I don't want to have to register and pay fees for my little flock!!! Even if I end up keeping a hundred birds, or whatever, I'm not a commercial business, I'm not gonna be selling eggs all over the country!!!! Any input????

http://nonais.org/
 
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I think everyone here on BYC should start e-mailing the FDA and telling them what we think. Here's what I wrote:

I just wanted to voice my opinion of the National Animal Identification System that is being proposed. Personally, I think it might be a good idea for larger, more commercial businesses, major businesses that supply products for many different areas, if not the entire country. However, I think that smaller, more isolated businesses, like a small business operating in just one town, city, or even a few towns and cities, should not be subjected to this system. If the concern is traceability of biohazards and diseases, you're going to run into a lot of trouble trying to trace the livestock of large, commercially operated businesses, but if there is a problem with a small business that only serves a tiny portion of people it won't be hard to trace without using NAIS due to the business and their body of customers being so small. It seems to me that it would be an unnecessary cost/effort, not only for those who own/operate small livestock farms, but for the USDA as well. There should be a reasonable regulation of livestock; rather than require EVERYONE to register their animals it would be better to have everyone who owns more than a certain number of that particular animal. For example, a person who only owns 50-100 cows isn't going to ship meat products all over the country. If he/she buchers a cow and sells/gives some of the beef to a friend or neighbor and they get sick, it won't be hard to trace. Now, if a business owns 100,000 head and sells all over the nation and someone gets sick, good luck trying to figure that out. There should be allowances for people who only want to keep a small number of livestock, whether as a hobby or a source of food, or even to start a small business.
NAIS should focus ONLY on the large, commercial livestock industry, and allow small businesses and farms to operate without needed to register their livestock.

Thank you.

- Christina
 
From what I have read, I think that the proponents of NAIS are trying to make it seem like a small inconvenience for the greater good. They are really downplaying the significance and hoping we won't notice.

Without getting up on a soapbox, I will just briefly complain about how our freedoms are being slowly chipped away. This is merely one more way big brother can keep an eye on us.

I have also read that in some states, legislators are slipping it into other bills in an effort to pass it. For example (made up example) "Here's a bill that regulates the taxes on livestock auctions and by the way, you'll have to have all your animals tagged."

Pretty soon, it's going to be so that anyone who wants to have a dog or a hamster or a gold fish is going to have to submit to government regulation. It's infuriating.

Cassandra
 
I think it's a horrible infringement on our rights, as well. I know BYC is composed almost entirely of small farmers/hobbyists, and with as many members as there are here I think we should all step up and oppose this thing as a whole. I'm sure a lot of people are already fighting it, but I think we should make sure everyone here knows what it is and what it's doing, so that we can all step up and tell them to take a hike.
 
I found about this a three years or so ago, just BEFORE I got chickens. People were saying, "Oh, no, the gov't wouldnt do that to us, it can't happen." Well, dont be too sure. It's under Homeland Security-that alone sends chills up my spine. Keep watching www.nonais.org for all the latest information.
 
* I think there are larger considerations going on here than even we realize. This tagging thing is being pushed WORLDWIDE. Govenments are "laying claims" to food supplies just like they are trying to do to the bottom of the ocean at the moment. FOOD will be "YOURS, MINE & OURS".
 

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