USDA Announces An "Opt Out" Procedure For NAIS
By Henry Lamb
January 30, 2007
In a remarkable turnaround, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has decided to provide an "opt out" procedure for people whose premises have been registered in the National Animal Identification System. Complaints have arisen in several states from people who say that their premises were registered without their knowledge. Until now, these people have been told the USDA has no provision for removing a premises once it has been registered.
Ben Kaczmarski, a spokesman for USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, told the Liberty Ark Coalition late last week, that since the NAIS was now an "opt in" voluntary program, that it had decided to provide an "opt out" procedure. Even though the protocol has not yet been fully defined, the spokesman said the procedure would require that a person who wants to opt out, write a formal request to be removed from the NAIS, to the state NAIS coordinator. The state coordinator will confirm the validity of the request, and advance the request to USDA. The USDA will then, presumably, remove the name from the registry, according to Kaczmarski. State NAIS coordinators can be located here.
Carol and Calvin Whittaker are delighted to hear this news. They have tried unsuccessfully for several months to get their land removed from the NAIS registry. They are now filing the written request as specified by the USDA, and the Liberty Ark Coalition will monitor the process to measure the time required, and the bureaucratic obstacles, if any, that must be overcome.
This new policy is met with great enthusiasm by the many people who oppose the NAIS, but it is also met with a large degree of skepticism. Since the controversial program was announced in 2005, with a time-line for the program to become mandatory by 2007, opposition has grown steadily. The USDA had to release a new strategy in 2006, and renounce the "mandatory" provision of the program.
While proclaiming that the program is now, and will always be, voluntary, the USDA poured money into states to encourage them to make the program mandatory at the state level. But opponents have convinced legislators in six states to introduce legislation prohibiting any kind of mandatory animal identification program. And several other states are likely to follow with similar legislation.
Moreover, at its October 16, 2006 meeting, the United States Animal Health Association's Livestock Identification Committee issued a report (Page 14) that recommends that the USDA create a list of "consistent" states, which are states that:
"have established by law, rule, order, or other means a requirement that all breeding age cattle be officially identified by means of official tag or registration brand or tattoo at each change of ownership, other than movements direct to slaughter, or movements through one approved market and then direct to slaughter."
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