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RE: [RC] [RC] Proposals for good animal identification in the USA - ll cole

As far as chickens go, Exotic Newcastle Disease(END) and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza(HPAI) have resulted in the destruction of hundreds of thousands of birds in recent years.

And to keep this endurance related, these darn USDA Emergency Programs are interrupting my conditioning schedule on the 5 y/o gelding I'm trying to get started.

Barry Cole.

>From: "Ed & Wendy Hauser" <ranch@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: [RC]   Proposals for good animal identification in the USA
>Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2004 14:43:03 -0600
>
>After leaving the computer, I realized that many, if not a majority of
>Ridecampers, do not live in Brand Inspection States, and thus do not know
>how brand inspection is supposed to work.  By the way, I do not propose to
>get dragged into a discussion about whether it actually does work.  That
>would be for a completely different time and place.  I am going to assume
>that the eventual regulations and practice will be reasonable and piggyback
>on existing practice.  To make this post shorter, I will assume that the
>only real differences will be that horses or cows that travel will have to
>have a positive ID.  I will also use the term "microchip" because it is a
>method that likely would be used on horses.
>
>In MT one can own a horse or cow on his/her ranch and never have it brand
>inspected.  That's right, never.  If the animal never goes out of your
>county, it doesn't have to be inspected.  This is quite similar to owning an
>automobile that you keep on your ranch and never drive on the roads.  If you
>remove the animal from the county, it must be brand inspected.  If the
>animal will only be moved once or a few times (like a beef steer going to
>slaughter) a cheap temporary brand inspection is issued.  If you are smart,
>and your horse will be traveling to endurance rides for 10 or 20 years you
>pay more ($15 if I remember correctly, but I am not sure as the price just
>went up) and get a lifetime inspection certificate.  The inspector spends
>10-15 minutes on each animal carefully recording markings, and if the animal
>is registered comparing to the registration papers.  The piece of paper you
>get is equivalent to an automobile registration, and must be shown on demand
>if you are on the road.
>
>If in the future, the animal had to be microchipped, the brand inspector
>would most likely verify the chip and compare it to the certification by the
>vet (or whoever was licensed to put it into the animal).  I suspect, that
>animals going directly to slaughter may not have to be microchipped, if they
>were born on the shipping ranch.  My reasoning is that the idea behind the
>regulations is that they will allow the use of slaughter house records to be
>used to find where all the animals lived during their lives.  The resultant
>meat will still be pretty anonymous (you can't chip each and every
>hamburger).
>
>Anyway, under this scenario, no person is forced to tag any living thing,
>any more than we are forced to identify any automobile unless we want to
>drive on the public roads.
>
>Since the basic proposal includes all meat animals, the final regulations
>concerning chickens may be interesting.  It is my understanding, that the
>production of chicken involves a hatchery, a factory farm where they are
>grown, and the slaughter house.  Egg producers have another step since many
>of the "farms" where the eggs are laid, purchase the hens from the "farm"
>that raised them until they reached laying size.  I have never heard of "mad
>chicken disease", but you never know. (There are other reasons why it is
>good to be able to ID source of meat, for example if the meat has an illegal
>residue from contaminated feed.)
>
>Ed
>Ed & Wendy Hauser
>2994 Mittower Road
>Victor, MT 59875
>
>ranch@xxxxxxxxxxx
>406.642.6490
>
>============================================================
>I drink a 50/50 mix of rootbeer and soymilk at the vetchecks.
>~  Libby Llop
>
>ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/
>
>============================================================

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