Posted on 02/05/2006 5:08:15 PM PST by Calpernia
Because of 9/11, our national government has decided to issue electronically readable, standardized ID cards to every human being within our borders.
By 2008, you'll need the card, embedded with a radio-frequency chip, to board planes, open a bank account or use government services. The goal is to make it tougher for terrorists to move freely among us.
When Pat Showalter heard of the cards, the 71-year-old great-grandmother who lives in the woods near Snohomish shook her head and wondered what the U.S. was coming to.
She soon found out. They want to radio-tag all the animals, too.
"I tell people about this, and they think I've gone nuts."
She's talking about an extraordinary plan under way to register, and track, every livestock animal in the U.S. That's all the cows, horses, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, pigs, even llamas.
It's called the National Animal Identification System. It seeks to assign each animal a 15-digit ID number and physical tag such as a radio-frequency device. So far it's voluntary, but it's slated to be mandatory in 2009 for any animal that moves from one property to another (i.e. if they're sold, borrowed, displayed at a fair, or just wander around a lot.)
It's well-meaning. If we know where all the animals are at all times, then we can quickly quell outbreaks of disease, such as mad-cow or avian flu.
But there are more than 10 billion such animals in the U.S. We kill 9 billion chickens a year. Keeping track of them all, even if some are registered in groups, will require massive government record keeping.
Another problem: It's insane. Especially for people who own just a handful of animals.
Take Showalter. She keeps 30 goats, 50 Muscovy ducks and "several dozen chickens, some of them feral," on her five-acre Zederkamm Farm near the Snohomish River.
She says radio-tagging them is doable, though pricey. But she'll have to file reports whenever they leave her land — such as when children borrow a goat to pull a cart, or she sells some ducks, or a coyote runs off with a chicken. She figures she won't have time for much else.
It's one thing to track animals at big feedlots. But goats in the woods in Snohomish?
This program will no doubt be softened. It's too burdensome and creepy to survive as advertised.
It has already radicalized at least one great-grandmother.
Showalter says she's never been an activist. She's a conservative, a Christian, a seller of goat-milk soap.
"But I absolutely will not go along with this," she said. "I refuse. I guess I'm just going to hold out up here until the government comes to get me."
This is about more than this one program. It's about who we're becoming. That we're considering radio-tagging all our people and animals, even if it's to fight terrorism and disease, is a mark of a country gone round the bend with fear.
As Showalter puts it:
"We're looking over our shoulders so much, afraid of something terrible happening, that we can't see that this is no way to live."
>>>and I will NOT report my every movement, much less the movement of my horses and dogs. Hell, the dogs leave the property every day to greet people at the mailbox across the street. Good luck to the officials with that problem.
Not complying with the microchipping is a Class C felony. You will lose your rights to bear arms and vote.
/rage
There's a Japanese company, Shimada Egg, which has been doing work in the area of individual egg identification.
I have seen here in the U.S. eggs that were stamped, but the stamps were generic ones that the producer had affixed (no individual identification.)
>>>This is a serious intrusion into your freedom of travel, and I for one won't do it. The government can come and get my critters and take care of them. I doubt they will do anywhere near as good a job of that as I do and have been doing for over 2 decades.
In NJ, they are training 'agents' of this law. Our bill that was signed into law says if the animals are confiscated, YOU are responsible for paying for the holding and upkeep of these animals
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1562040/posts
NJSBA Animal Law
Every state I've checked has a similar law or bill on the books.
http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=lobby_home
yes they want to tag goats, I have been studying this for awhile now. Yahoo has a group GoatID that will give you a lot of information. Right now you just have to follow state regs. Freepmail me privately if you want I have lots of links and info.
Can you see the new commercials?
"It's 10:00pm, do you know where your guinea fowl are"
>>>I know who is behind it. The vegetarians!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1568683/posts
A Real-Life Jurassic Park
Goats can be a good source of food. High protein milk and even meat.
When the "free" trade undermines US agriculture and prices of food go up, the tags will help to suppress underground food production.
...It's well-meaning....
It absolutely is not.
How many chicks do you have and where have they been lately?
He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark
The insurance companies are the largest contributors to the Healthy People 2010 Grant monies.
http://nationalpropertyowners.org/CFRInfo.html
Next it will be "all felons." Then it will be the children. Then everyone.
Bit # Information Combinations 1 flag for animal (1) or non-animal (0) application 2 2-15 reserved field (reserved for future use) 16 834 16 flag indicating the existence of a datablock (1) or no data block (0) 2 17-26 ISO-3166 numeric-3 country code 1,024 27-64 national identification code 274 877 906 944
I'll hold the chicken please.
See 74. Plenty of room for future uses?
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