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."
http://nationalpropertyowners.org
National Property Owners
Full research sections on National Animal Identification System (NAIS)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1563271/posts
Healthy People 2010
Information on where the funding came from for NAIS
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1561077/posts
Animal Tagging and SCHOOL LUNCHES???
Information on some of the partners on these posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1564815/posts
Digital Angel and Microchip
Info on the technology that will be used for the tagging
Not complying with the microchipping is a Class C felony. You will lose your rights to bear arms and vote.
Words of Wisdom
Did the people behind this honestly expect little Susie to file a report to the feds every time she rides her shetland pony up the road to visit the neighbor kid?
Wouldn't a simple retina scan be a better / cheaper alternative?
>>>Did the people behind this honestly expect little Susie to file a report to the feds every time she rides her shetland pony up the road to visit the neighbor kid?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1570889/posts
TENNESSEE LAUNCHES EQUINE PASSPORT PROGRAM
Power Point Presentation on Animal Passport Plans
http://nationalpropertyowners.org/holt.ppt
So you are going to chase all your animals all over your property scanning their retinas every time they move?
How would that be cheaper?
"...I'm just going to hold out up here until the government comes to get me.
Thats right copper! You ain't take'n me in seeee!
Top of the World Ma!!!!!
BTT
We could have tied a cheap transponder tag to each and every one of them without an additional movement.
Or, we could have slapped a barcode on each one ~ they don't live long you know!
You will be chewing on some chicken and bite one of these micro chips! Ouch!
Are you volunteering to hold a large, mean bull steady while they do a retna scan? How about a chicken.
They'll come off when we remove the claws. Maybe they could be made out of watersoluable plastic.
BTW, when holding a chicken, hold it "butt side" away from you!
seattle is losing, 14 to 3... does that help...
" a country gone round the bend to fear"
That's exactly it! I don't feel any safer after the high school dropouts at the airport X-ray my luggage and grope my wife.
IF the Feds would just control the borders and ship out the illegals, it would be plenty of security for me.
That is a good point. How will that work?
A few goat owners that have already inserted the chips said the chip travels.
How will the chips be kept out of the food?
You ever get pecked by a Red Island Red?
Poop washes off.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
