Anyone who deals with goats or sheep in Florida, including 4H and FFA
members, petting zoos, breeders, dealers and others, will soon be dealing
with another regulation.
Karen Voyles/The Gainesville Sun WILLISTON, Fla -
Beginning Oct. 10, Florida's agriculture officials will enforce a new rule
requiring that owners of goats and sheep be able to identify the herd or
flock that animals were born into. When that information is unknown, owners
must be able to identify the herd or flock that animals had been in.
''Our priority will always be prevention,'' Hammerschmidt said. ''The NAIS at
the federal level is voluntary, but it's also important to know there are
activities in which animal ID has been mandatory for years. Interstate
commerce of certain classes of livestock, cattle and animals over breeding
age require official identification. What we're doing with NAIS is we're
again applying our national standards to those activities so that we increase
our effectiveness, our advancement of compatibility of information systems
and so we actually get greater return on animal ID as we move forward.''