The state of Illinois has taken the first step towards implementing the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) by starting a voluntary livestock Premises Registration.

So what does this mean? Lots of red tape is what I see in the future. Withholding my biasis of how ridiculous this program actually is, I’ll give you both sides of the story. What it means for you as a horse owner in Illinois or rather a horse breeder/raiser in Illinois, they are requesting that you register your facility as a production site or livestock market. It is the first step in the NAIS plan which includes registering of production, animal registration, and finally animal tracking. The thought is to be able to track where an animal comes from at all time in case of a foreign animal disease is discovered. This will speed up the process of being able to trace back where an animal has been. The NAIS plan is to be able to do this within a 48 hour period of time. From the Illinois Department of Agriculture

Premises registration is the first step you can take to protect your investment in Illinois’ livestock industry. A database of locations where livestock are produced, raised and kept, will aid animal health officials. A system with proper trace back and trace forward capabilities provides timely response to minimize the economic impact in the event of an animal disease outbreak. The discovery of BSE in the U.S. has emphasized the need for a 48-hour trace back system.

When you register your premises it will be kept secruely on a database used exclusively for this program. Eventually the program will be able to track a single horse and if that horse becomes ill with a foreign disease, all of the horses movements from where it originated will be in one database for inspectors to trace back. From there they can contact and or trace any other horses that one came into contact with. For more information on the NAIS program go to http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/index.shtml

Now if all this sounds a little big brotherish to you, I agree and so does NoNAIS.org which for some reason is no longer there! SO if this website or blog post comes down you will know that the federal agents in support of the NAIS program have gotten to me as well.

OK out of the black helicopter conspiracy government is bad mode and back to reality. There are several people opposed to this program as they feel it does infringe on their privacy. Here are several websites that do oppose the NAIS that have not been removed.

http://www.noanimalid.com/

http://www.rfid-weblog.com/50226711/nonaisorg_we_dont_need_no_stinking_tags.php

http://www.nonaiswa.org/

http://www.cafepress.com/nonais

In my opinion the program may have merit, but at what cost and trusting the government to make good on its promises has never been a strong faith of mine. What I mean by this is keeping the information private and only for use in the prevention of an outbreak. I do not believe in conspiracy that the people trying to have this program go forward have other intentions than exactly what is stated, but in the future the government will have access to these records for who knows what down the line. After the BSE scare here in the US they are trying anything and everything to prevent a horrible outbreak even if it means bending a few rights given us in the constitution. I also feel that this program although well intended will fall short of what it is trying to accomplish. Government is notoriously slow and I will see this program as no different, lots of red tape and record keeping, which will be great for the big businesses that are already tagging and tracing but for the individual horse owners that have a hard enough time keeping their breed registration papers in order this is going to be a real pain in the rumpus. Will it actually be able to do what it is intended to do…prevent a massive outbreak…in a word, no.