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livingontheland - [Livingontheland] Group Wins Major Animal ID Dispute; USDA Cancels Mandatory Premises Registration Directive

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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Group Wins Major Animal ID Dispute; USDA Cancels Mandatory Premises Registration Directive
  • Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:25:34 -0700


Group Wins Major Animal ID Dispute; USDA Cancels Mandatory Premises
Registration Directive
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Group-Wins-Major-Animal-ID-by-R-CALF-United
-Stoc-081229-439.html
by R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America

For those aware of the threat the NAIS poses, this is a significant victory
for the freedom to farm. The fight is not over, however, until states such
as Michigan and Wisconsin rescind their mandatory NAIS regulations. In
Wisconsin, the state agriculture department has filed suit against Emmanuel
Miller, an Amish farmer, for refusing to register his premises - just the
issue that R-CALF has fought with the USDA and won. Let us wish Mr. Miller
well in his trial and that he retain full freedom to farm - something his
family came to this country for, many generations ago.


“Fighting for the U.S. Cattle Producer”
For Immediate Release

Shae Dodson, Communications Coordinator
December 29, 2008
Phone: 406-672-8969; e-mail: sdodson@r-calfusa.com

Billings, Mont. – Just over a month after R-CALF USA sent a formal letter
to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service-Veterinary Services (APHIS-VS) demanding that the
agency retract Memorandum No. 575.19 issued on Sept. 22, 2008, APHIS-VS
officially canceled that particular memo on Dec. 22, 2008.

Memorandum 575.19 mandated premises registration under the National Animal
Identification System (NAIS) for producers engaged in interstate commerce
and who participate in any one of the dozen or more federally regulated
disease programs.

R-CALF USA told the agency in its Nov. 10, 2008, letter that the memo
“constitutes an unlawful, final regulatory action initiated and
implemented without public notice or opportunity for comment, as required
by the Administrative Procedure Act,” and must be retracted.

“We caught USDA in the unlawful act of trying to convert what was
promised to be a completely voluntary animal identification system into a
mandatory NAIS, and the agency backed down,” said R-CALF USA
President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry, a Missouri veterinarian who
also chairs the group’s animal health committee. “This goes to show how
an organized group of cattle producers can effectively defend their rights
if they stand and fight together.”

The cancellation memorandum issued by APHIS-VS on Dec. 22, 2008, states,
“VS Memorandum No. 575.19 dated September 22, 2008, is hereby
canceled.”

“This action by USDA confirms what we’ve been saying all along – that
USDA does not have the authority to implement NAIS and it is using
underhanded and unlawful methods to coerce independent cattle producers
into giving up their rights to their property,” said Kenny Fox, who
chairs the group’s animal identification committee.

“R-CALF USA encourages producers to not register their premises under the
NAIS and to immediately request that their names and property be removed
from the NAIS database if they had previously registered under USDA’s
coercive actions,” Fox urged.

The new APHIS-VS memo further states that APHIS-VS “has an established
procedure for producers who request their premises record be removed from
the NAIS premises databases.”

R-CALF USA advocates that USDA should use and improve existing disease
traceback methods including state-sanctioned brand programs that do not
require individual producers to register their property under a national
premises registration program in order to improve USDA’s disease
traceback capabilities.

“There is no need to violate producers’ private property rights to
accomplish this objective, and R-CALF will continue to work with Congress
and USDA to improve our existing systems, but we will not tolerate the type
of government intrusion on our industry that USDA envisioned with NAIS,”
Fox concluded.





  • [Livingontheland] Group Wins Major Animal ID Dispute; USDA Cancels Mandatory Premises Registration Directive, Tradingpost, 12/30/2008

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