Re: [RC] NAIS & quarantine at Pinlico - Sisu West Ranch
"...So, again, why this terrible expensive and invasive program when there
are already safeguards in place?..."
Just another tool, and a good one.
1. How do we know it is expensive-no cost figures
are available.
2. We, the horse owners are lucky that the "ground
Zero" horse was a Racing TB. Racing TB's have been positively ID'd , by
tattoos (which are more invasive to the horse, and not cheap, and don't last
very long, but do last long enough for racing TB's)
What if the "ground Zero" horse was like a majority
of horses in N America and there was no way to track it at all? How would you
like to find "that nice Sorel QH I rode next to at the trail ride, his owner
said his name was Dave and he came from the next county over".
While government bashing is a traditional American
pastime, lets not forget that the gov. public health programs do work.
They are not perfect, but they are much better than nothing.
I am going to list a bunch of animal and human
diseases that are now rare in the USA. Without various Gov. programs we
would still have them around to worry about. I count immunizations because
many people would not comply without the government forcing them. If
immunizations for school kids were a new program, I can imagine the hue and cry
about parents rights, etc.
Animal:
Glanders (horse disease that was made extinct
by gov slaughter of infected horses)
Hoof and Mouth disease
TB in milk cows
Brucellosis
EIA (much reduced)
Rabies (vaccination of pets to keep it from
humans)
Hog Cholera
VS (yes we did have an outbreak last summer, but
how much worse would it have been if the imperfect gov. programs had not been in
effect)
Human:
Small Pox (in the good ole days when governments
did not force vaccination, almost every child in Europe got it and about 25%
died)
TB (rare , but coming back )
diphtheria
Mumps
red measles
Polio (almost wiped out world wide, a few cases in
USA among unvaccinated)
Tetanus (The germ is still in our barns, but cases
are not on the 10 pm news because of mandatory vaccination)
Malaria (did happen in the South 150 years
ago)
I consider myself a conservative Republican, but I
do acknowledge that there are some functions that only a government can do
effectively. The promotion of a healthy population and healthy agriculture
are among these functions.
Yes, our government can be better. Lets work
towards improving it, not just knee jerk bash every program.
Ed
Ed & Wendy Hauser 2994 Mittower
Road Victor, MT 59875
