Press Release
July 26, 2007
For More Information Contact:
Karin Bergener, 330-298-0065 -
bergener@config.com
Public meeting about premises registration and the National Animal Identification System
Many Ohioans remain unaware of a government program called the National Animal Identification System, otherwise known as NAIS. While the Ohio Department of Agriculture and Farm Bureau are promoting the program, they are not telling the full story to the many animal owners, taxpayers, and consumers who will be impacted. The Liberty Ark Coalition will host a public meeting on NAIS at the Shalersville Town Hall on August 1, 2007, at 7:30 PM. The meeting is free to the public.
NAIS is a plan of the United States Department of Agriculture to register every piece of property where someone holds even one head of "livestock," then require each individual livestock animal to be tagged, mostly with microchips or RFID tags, and registered with the government, and then require the owners to report to the government under a list of events - including trail rides, selling an animal, 4H fairs, etc. The animals on the list include chickens, horses, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, ducks, geese, llamas, alpacas, deer, elk, and bison. People with food fish ponds will have to register their properties, called a "premises" under NAIS. States can add other animals to the list - for instance, Texas includes parakeets.
Karin Bergener, the Ohio Coordinator for the Coalition, has spoken to many groups, including 200 people at a NAIS meeting in Ashtabula in June of this year, and will speak at Shalersville. Ms. Bergener reports, "I'm hearing from farmers across Ohio who are receiving letters from the Ohio Department of Agriculture recommending that they register their farms. Things are just starting up in Ohio. But, we've seen people involuntarily registered in other states, 4H youth being paid $10 to register their parents' and neighbors' farms, and Michigan began implementing NAIS this year by rolling it into their tuberculosis program for cattle. We want to nip it in the bud here in Ohio."
The Liberty Ark Coalition was formed in 2006 to fight NAIS. It holds community meetings across the country to educate people about NAIS, and has been actively involved in legislation in over a dozen states, aimed at stopping NAIS. For more information, readers can visit www.libertyark.net or email them at libertyark@freedom.org.