New decree from NC Agriculture Head requires registration of even one chicken with the State!

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

The information on the petition is wrong. The Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza comes from migratory waterfowl and the virus can infect any poultry regardless of housing type. Backyard poultry have the potential to be more prone to infection because they are not protected from the migratory waterfowl like birds inside the commercial poultry houses. The NC Department of Ag is simply trying to be prepared in the event that HPAI does hit the poultry in the Atlantic Flyway.

 

[enola]

I would be VERY leery about signing a petition that I did not know who started it!

Much less sign a petition that had incorrect information on it......

 

[speckledhen]

I realize this is a year old thread, but it just came up in a discussion today with someone I know looking for property in NC.

The real reason they want this is so they can find the backyard flocks to kill to protect the commercial flocks. They know where to go within the "kill zone" if something big comes along that threatens the commercial poultry industry. That's it in a nutshell. Tell me how the heck they will "protect" your flock from AI or anything else? How, really? Put a dome over your house? There's no way they will protect your birds. Why would they? They don't care about your pet flock. They care about big agri-biz.

The goal is not protection of your birds, it's protection of the commercial birds and the food supply, period. That's what NPIP was created for in the first place, in spite of all the backyard folks jumping on board with that.

I no longer sell to NC people because of this. I don't want someone who is gullible enough to register their flock with the state to throw me under the bus to the USDA when their birds and birds they may have purchased from me at some point come down with something. I would not comply with it, ever. There is zero reason for anyone with a backyard flock to register them, IMO.


I also happen to think backyard flocks are in general healthier than commercial birds in a monoculture situation, where disease would spread like wildfire. There is zero immunity, no natural health resistance in a commercial flock crammed into some tight space, cages or otherwise. And even if I was in NC, I would not sign the petition. I don't get on lists, generally. Only people with a dog in the fight sign petitions, if you know what I mean.

 

[Birdydeb]

Soooo.....after reading all of this thread, backyard flocks have to be registered in NC? And MD too? I did not know this. Are there any other states? I absolutely agree with you......registration of anything is for the government's benefit and not ours. It absolutely is so they can find flocks to destroy in the case of AI.

 

[speckledhen]

Soooo.....after reading all of this thread, backyard flocks have to be registered in NC? And MD too? I did not know this. Are there any other states? I absolutely agree with you......registration of anything is for the government's benefit and not ours. It absolutely is so they can find flocks to destroy in the case of AI.

I don't know about MD, just NC since it's next to me. It's a leftover from the old NAIS program they tried to cram down farmers' throats and kept repackaging over and over again to make it seem more palatable and are still trying to get passed in smaller ways. They truly don't want anyone to have a backyard flock, IMO. It cuts into the commercial egg business.

It is not just AI they want to have your information for. There are other worse diseases like ILT that is reportable, where they absolutely will destroy your entire flock and then proceed to tell you what you can and cannot do thereafter. If you are on the list so they can "protect" your flock from AI, they have you for anything else, too. Now, granted, ILT is a bad, bad disease, yes, but they will not test other birds to see if they contracted it. I'd cull my own if they had it because it's not recoverable, but they won't be bringing their portable gas chambers to my place. They will kill them all w/o testing, even if you have flocks far away from the infected one, if it happens like it did in Indiana for one NPIP breeder.

Seriously, protect your flock? They cannot do that in any way, shape or form. What're they gonna do, kill all the wild birds? Put a glass dome over your house? Yeah. It's bogus "we're the gov't and we're here to help" garbage.