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Response from them dated May 31, 2007
Thank you for your opinion...we are all entitled to ours.
I am not, however, going to waste my time trying to convince you otherwise, because you are clearly not open to the discussion,
nor have any of you provided a factual or accurate case supporting your position.
The NAIS program is not a government control program, it IS a disease prevention program. The government does not
care if you have 10 hogs or 10,000 hogs...they do care if a disease enters the United States and wipes out
millions of animals and costs billions of dollars, not to mention creates a significant environmental AND animal welfare issue.
On those two points alone...as someone who claims to care about animals, small farmers and the public...you should support
the program.
Animal identification today is not expensive, and it simply is not a "burden" to record and keep track of a
handful of animals (hogs don't have to be tagged). If you can't handle that task as simple as that, you probably shouldn't
be raising animals. And, the reason the program needs to be mandatory is that people won't do the responsible
thing on their own accord. If a disease such as foot and mouth disease or African swine fever enters the United States, your
animals could die just as easily as anyone else's.
My opinion is accurate, it just doesn't follow yours.
Sincerely
Marlys Miller
Editor Pork magazine, Pork Exec, Pork Alert, Porkmag.com
Response back to them dated 06-01-07
Marlys Miller
Editor Pork magazine, Pork Exec, Pork Alert, Porkmag.com
Yes we are entitled to our factual opinions, Being open to discussion
includes the usage of the USDA Draft Plan, USDA Draft Program Standards and the USDA User Guide and let us not forget
the USDA Cooperative Agreements, the State Cooperative Agreements with working plans and the working species groups
on the implementation of NAIS which are factual and accurate supporting documents on the Nais position
from the Government.
You clearly state that the NAIS is
not a government control program it is a disease prevention program. All the Official Documents clearly state USDA on
them. The grant money is from the USDA which comes from taxpayers. What part of the USDA do you not understand that
they are the FEDERAL Government? Yes they do say its a disease prevention program, but only to protect the Market
that is the bottom line the Market. Quoted from the Draft Plan, " I believe a fully functional animal tracking
system will keep us competitive in international markets, helping us retain and expand our market share. This Department is
wholly committed to making NAIS a reality. Mike Johanns Secretary of Agriculture. When reading all the documents from
the USDA it clearly spells
M A R K E T, Prosperous industries, that is the bottom
line.
Even you say that in your response
and I quote" they do care if a disease enters the United States and wipes out millions of animals
and costs billions of dollars" . The only worry they have is if the MARKET closed but then the government reinvented Zoning
now so that will not happen. Every chicken, every horse, every, pig, every goat, every sheep, every
Llama, etc must be registered in the NAIS, the owner of the animal will have to have a premises ID first and foremost
which will carry with the land forever, every animal including one will be identified and then every animal tracked for movement.
All 14 animal event codes. The Industries who have 10,000 hogs will no doubt use the group/lot Id. So for every 5,000
hogs slaughtered you report one movement, my that is a small cost to the slaughter house, But if the owner of 10 hogs wants
to move them that is 10 reports one way and reports must be keep for 3 years much like the IRS which is 7 years. Before you
spout any further factual arguments you might want to read the USDA Draft Plan, USDA Draft Program Standards and the USDA
User Guide and lets us not forget the USDA Cooperative Agreements and the State Cooperative Agreements.
Furthermore your comment and I
quote again " as someone who claims to care about animals, small farmers and
the public...you should support the program." Tell me one thing just how did we small and
large farmers and the public do all this before this so called disease prevention program come into being? I would
also like for you to share your factual information with us, since you feel that we have been provided with inaccurate information
from the USDA. Would you please do that, so we may be educated and accurate?
Honestly Marlys Miller I find you attitude
against the small farmer quite frightful, how will you ever gain our support with this attitude? Again please share your knowledge
that you feel is so accurate and our information from the USDA is inaccurate?
It really wouldn't matter if a disease came in to the
country, Its here already and its starting on the humans due to the governments open border policy. Have you not heard
that TB and other Communicable disease's are on the rise due to the government?
If your animals live within the radius of Hoof N
mouth or any other contagious disease you would be wiped out anyway via the USDA and the depopulation methods. Have you
read the official FAO documents? They would go door to door just like they did in the past. It would
not matter if you had a premises ID, it would not matter if your animals tested negative you would be 'Stamped Out" Depopulated,
eradicated until no further signs of disease is reported.
You stated and I quote again " the reason the program needs to be mandatory is that people won't do the responsible thing on their own
accord." Now you are criticizing our morals, our character, and certainly our intelligence with
this statement. If my animals get sick, my first line of defense is to call the vet. If the vet tests and the test comes back
a false positive for a contagious disease, my animal as with any ones moral character they would have the animal destroyed.
I and countless other farmers whether we are small or large would do the right thing and destroy said animals. What small
farmer can afford the excessive fines of 50,000 to 500,000 via the animal health protection act? Government does
not need to mind our business. I am fully educated to understand the meaning of disease which is more then I can say for the
Educated Attorney who flew on 5 airplanes with TB whose father in law works for the CDC and is in the field of TB.
If the Government cared then they would have not allowed
poisoned Wheat Gluten, Rice Gluten with melamine, and anti freeze in products...If they cared why was this poison allowed
to be fed to chickens, hogs, fish etc? If they cared they would not allow antibiotics, growth hormones and god knows what
ever else they put in our food. If the Government cared they would close the border to prevent further disease. If they
cared they would not use human beings for there test subjects for Pharma... Only if the Government cared, but alas
they do not, the only caring I see is greed.. The bottom line, profits. and we can certainly see that with
the amount of taxes we pay for everything.... today's farmer will have to have a license to farm. Furthermore
if the government cared why are they so intent on NOT testing every cow going to slaughter for BSE and yet deny Creekstone
to test so they may supply Japan? Marlys this is a legitimate question and I do hope you will answer that for us.
Environmental issues and animal welfare, do you really think
the small farmer is the issue here? We do not have lagoons and we certainly do not cage our animals to the point
of deformities, or cutting beaks to prevent pecking nor do we scald still alive animals in hot water to remove hair,
nor do we keep our hogs in crates so small that they can not turn around in while giving birth or nursing. So you see the
bottom line to animal welfare is greed, its profits. Any time wasted on a processing line is loss of profits. My opinion is
based on reading USDA "official documents and many hours of research what is yours? And might I add why all the recalls and
who do these recalls come from?
You stated that hogs do not have to be tagged,
Per the Draft Swine Program Standards 7/22/2006 Pork Industry Identification Working Group it states "Animals not eligible for group designation must be identified with official identification
methods or devices bearing AIN3 or PIN4. If a tag is required, it will comply with AIN tag requirements and may constitute
a unique color and/or unique symbol for ease of recognition. RFID, barcodes or other technologies are optional for swine.
This information was taken from the APHIS/USDA site, as you can see this is factual and accurate information.
As you can see line item 3 thru 5 clearly reference the documents
that I mentioned above. Line item 6 also reference the Animal Health protection Act that Every legal citizen of
the United States will also have to live by.
1 As defined in 9CFR § 71.1
2 See definitions at end of
document
3 National Animal Identification System-Draft Program Standards April 25, 2005, page 6
4 National Animal
Identification System-Draft Program Standards April 25, 2005, page 4
5 National Animal identification System-draft program
Standards April 25, 2005, page 7, table 3
6 Animal Health Protection Act, Section 10408
7 9 CFR § 71.19 (h)
8
9 CFR § 161.3 (b)
9 9 CFR § 71.19 (g)
It further states "Identification of Purebred/Crossbred
Swine for Show and/or Sale "
1) Identification methods must conform to the individual animal
identification requirements
by application of an AIN tag .
2) Movement recording requirements
a) Operators of non-terminal shows/sales and terminal sales
must record the following
events, along with the date of the arrival and departure event,
i) Tag number of each animal
ii) Source and destination PINs
b) Operators of terminal sales must maintain records according
to the Packer and
Stockyards Act.
c) For private sales of show pigs and breeding stock, the following
events must be
recorded for every animal, along with the date of any tagging event. Upon change of
ownership, copies
of the animal’s records must be provided to the buyer.
i) Tag applied and tag number (recorded by original owner)
ii)
Movement history (including PINs and movement dates) since tag applied
iii) Retagged and new tag number.
Did you know that the 11784/11785 RFID is hackable? So you see My opinion is accurate as I have read the documents,
what have you read?
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