NAIS: Get the government out of my barnyard!

By Helen Weir

It is not a piece of legislation, so there is no one to lobby directly in order to thwart or halt it. It is not essential to national security, since none of its targets are to be found on any terror watch list. It purports to protect the safety of our food supply, but its actual implementation would go far afield of this mission. So, what is NAIS — acronym of the National Animal Identification System? It is a complicated network of USDA regulations currently being put into action through various strong-arm tactics, with the effect of eroding yet another area of the rights of the American citizen. While it still can be, it must be stopped. Let's take a look.

Pleading Bureaucratic Incompetence

You have heard, no doubt, that one reason our country remains passive in the face of the illegal immigration crisis is the sheer weight of paperwork involved in lifting a finger against it. Consider the processing problems posed, we are urged, by the task of identifying all of these individuals, let alone deporting them! Impossible. Simply impossible.

Now hear this. The same government pleading bureaucratic incompetence on this point is currently on the brink of assigning a fifteen-digit identifying number to every horse, cow, llama, goat, sheep, duck, goose, chicken, alpaca, fish, and — it is alleged, in some states even parakeet as well. The exact definition of what constitutes a "livestock animal" varies from state to state. Nevertheless, NAIS proposes tracking them all, and demands that owners notify the government within twenty-four hours of any such creature being moved on or off of a registered premise (we'll get to what that is supposed to mean in a minute).

So, where does the rubber hit the road for — say — my seven-year-old daughter, who likes to lead her festooned little colt down the street in the local parade each year? In addition to the health, event registration, and insurance papers that would ordinarily be required, we would now have to register our premises with the government, obtain a government identification number for this particular member of an equine species, and let the government know immediately that we are going to trailer him ten miles away. With terrorists breathing murderous threats against us and other nations, with fears of a dirty bomb making it across the border, and with everyone wondering how we are going to protect our water and other resources, we now learn that the government is about to turn the full weight of its resources and attention to monitoring the minute details of the personal lives of my three miniature horses. For some reason, I find this other than comforting.

Protecting Our Herds . . . From Whom?

Animal identification is being touted by proponents as a way of "protecting" ourselves and our herds, but this raises the question of what we need to be protected from. Mad Cow disease is one thing, but the dairy people are saying that the feeding practices that give rise to this disorder are left unaddressed, so NAIS can't be considered a serious attempt at staving it off. The horse people are saying NAIS would be a wonderful way of helping to retrieve a stolen animal — a dubious proposal at best, and one that raises once again the tedious query, "Where is that in the Constitution?" If my horse does happen to get stolen, why would it be the task of the federal government to help get it back? Furthermore, under NAIS, vets are supposed to report "unauthorized animal sightings" to the government, so an antagonistic relationship is being set up between vet and owner that could cause some animals to go without adequate care. Obviously, NAIS proponents don't have the animal's best interest at heart. What kind of "protection" can they possibly be offering?

A hint is found in the fact that he USDA and the alphabet soup of agencies with which it is vaguely associated in the implementation of NAIS — here in Wisconsin, that would be WLIC and DATCP, for example — are adopting the language and tactics of thuggery in getting this program off the ground. For years, premises registration (the assignment of a seven-digit identifying number to any location where even one livestock animal will be kept) has been conducted on a voluntary basis, but this spring, the transition from voluntary to mandatory is being made. No explanation of the Constitutional or other basis for the imposition of these unprecedented requirements is forthcoming. Only threats of jail time, draconian fines, and revocation of pre-existing licenses are.

Here in Wisconsin, the few milk producers who haven't yet registered their premises are being warned that their milk licenses will be revoked on May 1 unless they step up to the NAIS plate. (Then, once registration has been made mandatory here, other states can be forced to follow our example.) The State is saying there is no need for these people to "jeopardize" their licenses and, therefore, their livelihoods. One can only picture a cigar-chawing, broken-nosed hulk in a tipped black hat, drawling, "We wouldn't want to see yas get yer knees bashed in — now would we?" When the government says it is offering us "protection" for ourselves and our herds, then, it turns out that there is just one kind it could possibly mean. NAIS compliance provides, in the last analysis, nothing other than protection from the government itself.

Cooling Out the Mark

This thing about premises registration also deserves a second look. During the "voluntary" stage, NAIS has been sugar-coated and downplayed so that people will not see the full extent of the rights they are surrendering until it is too late. Here in Wisconsin one can register (voluntarily or otherwise) with a simple, no-fee visit to a website, or a call to a toll-free number — for the moment, that is. When you take a magnifying glass to the entire NAIS program, however, far more crushing requirements — and a disturbingly anti-American agenda as well — soon appear.

In future years, fees for premises registration will apply, and registration will have to be renewed annually. Then the fifteen-digit animal identification number requirement will kick in, under the same circumstances. The cost and paperwork that the government says it cannot possibly take on, it is quite happy to require of its lowly subjects, it seems. Plus, for many species of livestock, simple physical tagging with the fifteen-digit number will not suffice. Microchipping and radio-frequency tracking will be required, at the expense of — well, you guessed it.

And here's the interesting thing. If you happen to be an agribusiness producer with lots and lots of animals — the kind of situation where diseases are more likely to arise and devastate — you magically don't have to tag every individual animal after all. One fifteen-digit number per two hundred head will do. So, exactly who is supposed to benefit from NAIS, and who is not?

Many 4-H families, organic farmers, homeschoolers who raise livestock as an income stream or curriculum outlet, family farmers, and hobbyists and small business people of many descriptions will simply not be able to continue owning, profiting from, and enjoying livestock animals at all, while the agribusiness conglomerates most able to handle the brunt of the new requirements won't have to face them in the first place. Is it really up to the government to decide by regulatory strangulation who can raise our food, and what businesses we can run, and which activities we choose to enjoy? What exactly are our young people going to be allowed to do any more? Will everything be made illegal for them, except for viewing pornography on the Internet and ingesting dangerous drugs?

And There's More

NAIS is a bloated, secretive program that takes a great deal of research to grasp; we have only touched upon the tip of the iceberg here. For the government's version of what it is doing, see http://animalid.usda.gov/nais/index.shtml. For some opposing viewpoints, see www.nonais.org and www.stopanimalid.org. The interesting thing about NAIS is that it affects people of many political stripes, who will have to come together despite profound differences on other issues, if this thing is to be addressed effectively. I am not vouching for the complete (and often Bush-bashing) viewpoints of other NAIS opponents. Still, NAIS should be of serious concern to everyone who believes in the concept of limited government, whether personally a livestock owner or not. Because really, what is the government saying when it requires us to register our property and to track and handle our animals according to their often non-disease-related specifications, in the first place — under threat of jailing us, fining us, and confiscating and/or destroying our animals if we don't comply?

It is saying, when you think about it, the same thing it said in the Schindler-Schiavo slaying, and in the confiscatory Kelo decision as well. It is saying that it no longer respects our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What used to be the American government and is now only a shadow of its former self told the Schindler family members they could only maintain the life of their dear daughter and sister with the government's expressed permission, and the government withheld that permission. It told the homeowners in the Kelo case they could only occupy their own homes with the government's permission, and the government withheld that permission. Now, through NAIS, everyone who owns a livestock animal of any kind is being told they can only own them with the government's permission. Does anyone see a pattern here? When will we see it, and put a stop to it as well?

To answer our original question, then, NAIS is not a benign attempt to curb the bird flu, or any other imagined or actual biological threat. It is a socialistic power grab with ramifications far beyond what might be immediately apparent. Just because an agenda is achieved through regulation rather than legislation doesn't give it the right to remain unconstitutional. What is the point of vigorously defending our freedoms abroad while calmly handing them over to bureaucrats back here at home? What do life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness mean any more, if they are to be constantly redefined by those with the power to back up that redefinition through the power of the sword?

© Helen Weir