Posted on 02/15/2006 11:15:31 AM PST by vrwc0915
Texans to face $1,000 per Day Fines for Possession of Baby Chick Alert - State — walterj 1:52 am With House Bill 1361 Texas legislators are determined to keep track of every single little baby chick in Texas. Each cutie must be tagged with a 15 digit number to identify it. All locations containing livestock animals must register as farms. $10 annual premise ID and premise registration fee will be required for all homes where any animal ever exists, even if just visiting. Anyone found not reporting a baby chick hatching, movement or death will face a fine of $1,000 per day for non-compliance. Similar fines for all other forms of livestock were also enacted.
With all this paperwork, fees and fines forget about 4-H. Forget about Future Farmers of America. Forget about that baby chick hatching school project. Homesteaders, you better eat your chickens now and don’t bother counting them. No more eggs. No more summer pigs. Slaughter that fatted calf. From now on plan on purchasing your food only at government approved distribution centers with sufficiently powerful lobbyists and friends in high places. Sorry small farmers - no more farmer’s market or farm stands in the future. The paperwork will destroy small farmers. So dies the Buy Local movement.
This monstrosity was originally brought to you by your friends at the USDA under the guise of NAIS - the National Animal Identification System. The Texas Animal Health Commission, which developed the rules in Texas, can be reached with comments on this absurdity by email until 5pm February 6th, 2006. The question is, are they really listening. Be sure that after that short “public comment” period they’re going to cover their collective eyes and ears as the food supply consolidates into the hands of the big producers. Do you think that will make the national food supply safer?
Perhaps our pseudo-elected Govi-Corp doesn’t have enough to do, so they sit around thinking up things like this. Remember: Idle hands do the devil’s work…
http://www.theeagle.com/stories/012906/business_20060129065.php
late night lol.
No, that was about pre-adult chicks.
It's that way already. I can remember when chicken was dirt cheap and beef was expensive.
These days, now that everyone's gotten on the "chicken is healthy and beef is an instant heart attack" bandwagon, chicken has become obscenely expensive, and they're practically giving away beef.
They will tag my cat when they pry it from my cold dead living room curtains.
Soylent Green?
Soylent Purple is the kind made from pets
BTTT
BTTT
**Did you miss my response to you? **
Yep. I did miss that reply.
#1--The Dept. of Agriculture is the third highest funded department in the Fed., after Defense and HHS. If you give a government worker the ability to write a budget request and a Congressman the ability to fund it, you're going to get projects like this. The only way to stop it is to make dollars so tight in Washington that they have trouble finding the money to buy a cup of coffee.
#2--Projects like this (and those big automated highway signs) are the result of big companies promising big campaign contributions if only the Congresslugs will vote to fund the company's latest pet project. It's a win-win for both because the campaign contribution is funded out of the profits from the project.
The only option we have as voters and outraged citizens is to get back in control of the purse strings, and the only way to do that is to vote for congressmen who are committed to reducing federal spending, passing massive tax reform, eliminating the IRS, and reducing the size of government. I can only think of 2-3 Republicans that qualify.
Enviro-whack rules in Texas gone too far ping.
Ignore them at your peril. They boast grandly about their intentions, but they make quiet inroads when nobody watches. Just a few years back, we had a farm in France, and we raised chickens with no problem, even a pig with a government tattoo, but that was the last chance to raise a pig. Chickens were still exempt, but other farm animals (mammals) were not, just as described here, were essentially monitored from birth to death. Our farm neighbors had to account for every critter and its' health, report deaths and sickness, and absolutely no chance to raise for one's own use. I don't think the French were aware or alarmed at its encroachment, but it slipped up on them and now is enforced.
This bunch will push as far as they can, and will slip in wherever they can, with the end game total government control of our food supply and worse.
More than that. There are royalties being paid to many also.
From Randy Givens,
I called Kenney Edgar, the NAIS guy at TAHC (1-800-550-8242) and asked him if pet birds were covered. He said NO, at first. I am an old bureaucrat, so I drug him through his own definitions. Bottom line, he agreed that, as written, ALL avian species under human control are subject to the Texas version of NAIS. There are NO EXCEPTIONS for ANYBODY, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE!!
Later, a Legislative Staffer told me she had talked to the "head of TAHC," and he finally admitted that they had written the Proposed Rules with an intentionally wide net, as handling exceptions was too difficult. He assured her that, even if it did cover somebody's pet bird, he had "No Intention" of enforcing the rule that way. That is outrageous!! He essentially has the authority to make laws, that HE doesn't intend to enforce. If he gets run over by a concrete truck on the way back from lunch, his replacement may just decide to enforce the letter of the law ...or PETA might sue in court to force TAHC to enforce the letter of the law/rule. Then we'd be up the proverbial creek.
I also talked to Gene Snelson, the TAHC lawyer, and Karla Everett, their public affairs lady. I also talked to Neil Hammerschmidt, the NAIS guy at USDA in Washington. I also called Rep. Robby Cook's office on this issue.
They got me some information I asked for, but would not respond to the NAIS issue.
I suggest you go through the TAHC proposed rules with a fine tooth comb.
Read their definitions very carefully, and see if you can find any exceptions.
You will be required to register any and all of the following types of animals, and register your "premises" for as long as you own one of any of the species listed.
"Animal" includes livestock, exotic livestock, domestic fowl, poultry and exotic fowl.
"Livestock" includes cattle, horses, mules, asses, sheep, goats and hogs.
"Exotic livestock" means grass-eating or plant-eating, single-hooved or cloven-hooved mammals that are not indigenous to this state and are known as ungulates, including animals from the bovine, swine, horse, tapir, rhinoceros, elephant, deer, and antelope families.
"Exotic fowl" means any avian species that is not indigenous to this state. The term includes ratites. "Poultry" means domestic fowl, including chickens, turkeys, and game birds.
I asked Kenny Edgar why rabbits were not listed, and he said he didn't know. Cherie says that she found that USDA has classified Rabbits as "Poultry." When is a Rabbit a Bird??? When the Federal Government gets involved!!
Dr. Hillman, the State Veterinarian, who heads TAHC, has a problem telling the "whole truth and nothing but the truth." When making excuses for increasing the cost of a blank form, needed by 4H and FFA kids to take their animals to a show, he said "the rules don't allow any exceptions."
True. But what he chose not to say was that TAHC makes the rules and could change them if they felt like it!! Instead, the increased the cost of the blank form from a quarter to $5.00 in one move. How high do you think they can jack up the $10 a year Premises Registration fees? They increased the form cost TWENTY times. If they do that to the Premises fee, it will go from $10 a year to $200 a year. Given the complexity of the system, and the amount of automation required, I will not be surprised to see the costs skyrocket.
I suggest that you have someone at Thursday's meeting, and call them on the lie/misstatement about pet birds not being included. Identify the person, and enter it into the record that you and your friends were misled by TAHC. Hold them to account for their actions. They have camouflaged this program as an "Agricultural Industry" issue, when the truth is that they are targeting everyone who ones ONE chicken, duck, pig, goat, sheep, horse, cow, etc. That includes Granny's lone parakeet in her 20th floor condominium.
Randy Givens
Paige, TX
cell: (xxx) xxx-xxxx
Responsible Pet Owners Alliance
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
San Antonio, TX 78209
Phone: (xxx) xxx-xxxx
Fax: (xxx) xxx-xxxx
E-mail: rpoa@...
Website: http://www.responsiblepetowners.org
$15 Annual dues (January - December)
To share information, subscribe or unsubscribe,
send an e-mail message to rpoa@....
I have Randy's contact information if anyone has any questions.
It will only remain voluntary if they get full compliance, otherwise ...
Slight correction.
They made it a class c felony. You risk losing your right to vote or legally bear arms.
When the SHTF I won't care if the armed patriot next to me was convicted on some bogus, unconstitutional statute or not.
Good point.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1579642/posts
Who benefits from GM crops?
Monsanto and its corporate driven sponsors
ROFLMAO! Speaking of chicks: "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"
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