The link below just appeared on a message board that is mostly Tennessee horse riders.  It is from a Nashville, TN tv channel regarding this subject.

NAIS (National Animal I.D. System)

Unless the proposal has changed, NAIS will require mandatory microchipping of EVERY piece of livestock one owns; including the house broke pot-bellied pig.

It will, over time, filter down to us back yard owners that are diligent about owning healthy animals (we can be tracked thru the vet records, plus animal registries.

I'm waiting to see how the USDA seeks and finds all those cattle and horses running on isolated pockets of vacant land on a remote wooded road out in the toolies ( I can think of at least 50 head).

When those horses or cattle, whom I KNOW don't get any kind of care except roundbales in the winter, contract a contagious disease and it gets passed along to some poor schmuck's well cared for animals like mine are, who will know?

The government will have the "right" to confiscate my horses, put them in holding pens from Hell until they are inhumanely destroyed.

Not if I can help it----I'll put them down myself, on their own pasture, before they get the chance.

This is a NATIONAL USDA ISSUE, apparently Tennessee wants to be the first to get the big ole USDA "men in black" pat on the back.

To all who breed and sell cattle, horses, hogs, sheep, etc. you are proabably already aware of this.  If not you can go to the American Horse Council web site for an accurate review, or the USDA web site.

Big Brother is NEVER a good idea, because he always takes what WAS a good idea and empowers himself with more authority than he should have;in this case the possibility of wrongly confiscating livestock.

The OWNER pays for microchipping every piece of livestock they own, including the house broke pot bellied pig. The USDA is tracking diseases you know---------------it needs to know everything about all of your livestock.

If the USDA hired more people to get the job done correctly, they wouldn't need NAIS --- but then again look at the revenue they would be missing out on --- see how that all works?

The National ID is here to protect us.  By the year 2008 it will be required that all farms raising livestock have a premise identification number.  By the year 2009 all livestock will have to have an EID tag on them.  I have not heard that this is going to be used on horses.  The main concern is tracking livestock that is used for human consumption. 

PAWALKER, my question to you would be why you would not want to make sure your food supply was safe.  I work in the agriculture field and train cattleman how to ensure that they are producing a quality animal that is safe for any consumer.  The trainings also help to ensure that they produce the highest quality animal that will yield a high quality carcass that is free from damage to the muscling. 

The National Animal ID System is designed to be able to track livestock back to the producers that raise them.  Suppose a steer makes it to slaughter and we realize that there is a problem with that animal.  With this system, we can easily track where it originated from and go to the farm and see what practices he incorporates into his farm operation.  We can then see if any changes can be made to help prevent any other problems.  Granted, the farmer might not be aware that he has a problem with his operation.  However, being able to track the animals to the farm allows us to be able to help him be more productive and make sure that there are not more animals out there that could have the same problem.  This will only help to ensure our food supply is safe and secure.

We recently had our markets open to Japan this week.  This was a major accomplishment for those in the cattle industry.  It opens another market for our products. This was accomplished in part because we are able to prove to these foreign countries that we are making sure that we are producing a quality product and making sure that it is safe.

I trained cattle producers this week in the Beef Quality Assurance Program.  Every cattleman that I have come in contact with, sees that this program is worhwhile. If there is anyone to have reason to complain, it would be them. There will be the added cost to buy these EID tags and incorportate them into their farming costs.  However, they all see the reason to have this system. 

I found this piece from the USDA website :

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The NAIS is designed to encompass the tracking of all animal species that could directly or indirectly impact the animal health status of our nation's food animal system. Currently, species working groups have been established for beef and dairy cattle, bison, camelids, cervids, equine, goats, poultry, sheep and swine.

Granted, we do not consume equine in this country.  However, there are other parts of the world that do.  We have to look at this from the standpoint of the goal of this initiative which is to protect the general public.  Quite frankly, I want to be able to sit down at night and eat a meal and not worry about it being safe or not.  Ultimately, if we found a diseased animal, I would hope that we could be able to track the others that might be effected and prevent more from becoming sick.  There are times when we need to make room for programs that have our best interests in mind.  Most farms that operate today are following the correct procedures to make sure the food is safe.  However, if there are those who are not, we need to identify them and assist them in making their farming practices safer.

It could have some majior drawbacks, But it could also help the animals.  If auction barns/slaughter houses used it, stolen animals could be found more often.   A system could be set up with the internet so a scanner could check a stolen animal database and set off an alarm.  Scan the animals as they come into the barn and hook the scanner into a computer.  It may not stop the theft, but it would take away a fast way to sell.

If people knew that an animal could be traced to them there wouldn't be so many left abandoned to starve, be hit by a car or shot.  If my mare had one of these then who ever left her starved laying on the side of the road (to weak to stand) would have been charged instead of getting away with it.   A guy up the road hit a cow.  No one seems to own it so he is responsible for the damages the cows owner should be paying since they are always out on the road.

And if a cow makes it to a slaugher house and is found to have mad cow (or something else that could affect us) it would make it a lot easier to track where that cow had come from.

"PAWALKER, my question to you would be why you would not want to make sure your food supply was safe."

This applies to ALL livestock, including horses.  Please go to the American Horse Council's web site and read for yourself.

http://www.horsecouncil.org/

That isn't where I was going with what I said.  I was raised on a Dairy farm and fully comprehend why livestock for human consumption need to be monitored.

To reiterate, if the USDA employed enough people to do their jobs, this MANDATORY LIVESTOCK I.D. wouldn't be needed.  I respect and applaud the hard work that folks are doing; it's the USDA's bright ideas to make money off the farmers and get their fingers into the control pot that has me rankled.

Regarding microchipping fees, I edited this to say that the government is sympathetic toward producers and will not make them chip every single piece of livestock.  See page six of the document in this link.

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/pubs/Animal_ID_Brochure.pdf

The ultimate goal, is to eventually include every backyard owner of livestock, including horses. 

This is a hot, sticky-wickett issue that folks can argue til the cows come in for milking.  I will continue to stay on my side of the fence -- the government doesn't need to stick his nose in my 4-horse business when I know where there are several pockets of BEEF cattle and horses that wander around on vacant land without benefit of any type of health care.

The following was posted on another message board and best says what I was trying to say:

"In the event of the declaration of a national emergency, the system is in place to turn our whole country into something that closly resembles the hard line communism that russians endured for many years. all private land becomes government land, all business and all farms are taken over by government, etc. and the better they can track what everybody is doing and where all animals are, the better the system will work. What they forget about is the fact that farmers are better capable of running their farms than some gov. hired overseer telling them what to do and when to do it. It's something that completely superceeds the constitution."

Before anyone says that is too bizarre and would never happen in the United States --- well we never thought 911 could happen to us either.

There are times when Authority gets too heady with power.  A prime example would be those one percenter police officers that abuse public trust.

Please notice I said one percenters before the police officers start coming in and  pointing fingers.

lol. Sorry, this is a serious topic but I'm afraid  this  ship has sailed. Meaning, it's happening and I cant see anything we can do about it.

My solution is to buy stock in Verichip, a subsidiary of Applied Digital  It's about 2.28/share these days.

Read: Is the VeriChip the "Mark of the Beast?" http://www.mercola.com/2003/dec/6/verichip.htm. Probably, you might as well try to make a buck off it and buy yourself a few more acres----- far away from civilization.

I grew up on a dairy farm and have horses too.  Though I know how financially painful  additional cost imposed by the goverment can be, I have to agree with Terri - I would be glad to "chip" my horses, if I thought it would help protect them from theft. 

The vets in my area have poo-pooed micro-chipping because no sales barns have (or probably want) scanners.  If their use was mandatory, and enforced, it would certainly help protect horses from theft or at least aid in their recovery. 

I had heard that mandatory ID, either by brand, tatoo or chipping, was one of the things that helped reunite so many Louisiana horses and owners after Katrina. 

Would certainly be a help to livestock owners for the government to step in and help pick up at least part of the initial cost for this, as I think the chipping kits cost about $30.