Animal ID Program-Costly, Needless, Unconstitutional

The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is an expensive and unnecessary federal program that requires owners of livestock– cattle, dairy, poultry, and even horses– to tag animals with electronic tracking devices. The intrusive monitoring system amounts to nothing more than a tax on livestock owners, allowing the federal government access to detailed information about their private property.Under NAIS, small family farmers and ranchers will be forced to spend thousands of dollars tagging animals and complying with new paperwork and monitoring regulations. These farmers and ranchers literally will be paying for an assault on their property and privacy rights, as NAIS empowers federal agents to enter and seize property without a warrant– a blatant violation of the 4th amendment.NAIS is not about preventing mad cow or other diseases. States already have animal identification systems in place, and virtually all stockyards issue health certificates. Since most contamination happens after animals have been sold, tracing them back to the farm or ranch that sold them won’t help find the sources of disease.