Fair makes premise ID mandatory

By NICK BONHAM
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

LAKEWOOD - Exhibitors at the 2008 Colorado State Fair will be required to register the location where the animal was raised with the controversial National Animal Identification System.

The Fair's board of commissioners voted 8-1 to stand by the policy it set forth last year, which drew controversy.

Future Farmers of America and 4-H members will have to register with the NAIS their premise identification or the physical location to show in the Junior Livestock Sale.

The board's decision came here Friday at its monthly meeting, held at the state Department of Agriculture.

The only commissioner to vote against the policy was Raeana Wadhams of Pueblo, who was present via telephone. Of the 10 commissioners on the board, only Loren Whittemore of Wray, who expressed opposition to premise ID at the October meeting in Pueblo, did not attend.

Premise ID was a controversial topic before it came to the State Fair. Last year the Fair voted to make it mandatory because 4-H and FFA groups showed strong support of it and supporters said it is a valuable tool for quick traceability - 24 to 48 hours - in the case of an animal disease outbreak.

Opponents argue that registration is an invasion of privacy and that government agencies were pushing an agenda on youth Ag producers.

"We're not saying it's 4-H and we're going to use those kids or brainwash them," said Commissioner Catherine Ross. "The department of ag has identified (the Fair) as a possible place for disease outbreak."

Two exhibitors were disqualified from the show this year because their premises weren't properly registered. In the end, both individuals were compensated for what their replacement animal sold for.

At the October meeting two opponents of premise ID talked with board members and supplied them with large packets of information. The Fair also received some letters, including one from a group of legislators, opposing the policy.

Here on Friday, after long discussion with state ag officials on the subject, the board voted to stand by its policy and will look at expanding premise ID requirements to all large animals that will be on the Fairgrounds during the 11-day expo.

"Any type of leadership comes with criticism," said John Stulp, state commissioner of agriculture. "I think we did right by the state and the Colorado State Fair in a step to ensure the safety of our livestock industry.

Those close to the debate said that premise ID registration, which is a voluntary program, will ultimately be driven by the livestock industry.

Jeanne Robinson, livestock coordinator for the Fair, said packing plants in the state are looking at making premise ID required before slaughter.

"They have policies in the making to only accept from county fairs that have premise IDs," she said.

"Premise ID is just one of many tools we need for rapid traceability" Stulp said.

Animals competing at the Fair must have a health certificate or pass a health exam at the Fair.

There are some pitfalls, according to Lindsay Wadhams, horse show coordinator. She said horses are often housed at stables while their owners live elsewhere, but the stable owner does not want their address listed for the animal's ID.

"That would be a rare occasion and if they wanted to show they'd have to find another stable," Stulp said.

Premise ID registration can be done online or on mail-in forms. Board members looked at the mail-in sheets and agreed the information required was minimal and that there were other areas of public record where more information could be found.

"There's no Social Security number, bank account information. They don't even ask for your driver's license," said Fair attorney Steve Smith.

Ag officials said mail-in ID information is kept locked in file cabinets while electronic info is stored in secured databases. They said they're looking further into the security of information.

I sent a letter to all the Colorado Reps concerning NAIS and 4-H ,

09-12-07 Response received from Josh Penry

Sen. Brophy and Rep. Gardner deserve kudos for taking this up.  And I look forward to helping them.  All the best, josh

09-11-07 Response received from Rep Jerry Sonnenberg.

Notes from the Outhouse Wall – September 10, 2007

By State Representative Jerry Sonnenberg

            Even in its best light, it is still no more than heavy handed government beating up on children. I’m talking about the Colorado Department of Agriculture and Cooperative Extension through Colorado State University taking a federal voluntary premise identification program and turning it into a mandated program for 4-H and FFA kids that show livestock in Colorado.

            To give you a little background the National Animal Identification Program is a federal plan to allow producers to register their ranch into a national database to provide information in case of a disease outbreak in America. It remains voluntary because we have a fairly good system that has been in place for decades to trace animals. That system has worked before when we found a cow with “mad cow disease” and were able to track its movement out of Canada.

            So why do we need to force the kids that show animals at their county and state fairs to register in a federal database? That’s the same question that I have.

            This plan is scheduled to be mandated to all county fairs for 2008 and was implemented at the state fair this year bringing a firestorm of controversy. There were kids that elected not to take animals to Pueblo because of this policy and then a couple of youth were removed from the sale for not complying with the mandate. How many kids will leave these youth programs because of this unwarranted mandate?

            Now you might say that 4-H and FFA are organizations that you choose to belong to so you should have to abide by their mandates and I would agree except that the county fairs and especially the state fair are held using taxpayer dollars. These organizations are just one piece of the much larger fair event and are now making an attempt to hold these fairs hostage.

            The purpose of the federal premise ID program is to find all of the animals that an infected animal has had contact with in a short period of time. These young people that are now being targeted have better records than any commercial operation in which pens of cattle or livestock are put together in load-lots. These young people in most cases know where each and every one of their animals were born, raised and the progeny of their project. This is not the group that will benefit the premise ID vision and seems to be no more than heavy handed rule making with a solution looking for a problem.

            There are much more pressing issues that need to be dealt with at the state level and I shouldn’t have to spend this amount of time on issues like this. However, as an elected official I have made it a priority to keep government from sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong.

            This is a case where they are sticking their whole head some place.

            (Representative Sonnenberg serves the 65^th House District which includes Logan, Phillips, Sedgwick and a large portion of Weld counties. He can be reached by email at jerry.sonnenberg.house@state.co.us)

 Thanks,