Are You Kidding Me?
By Pam Cantwell
Can this really be happening to us in the United States of America? The home
of the brave and the land of the free?
I should not have to be here today. I’m the daughter of a retired United
States Marine Cop officer and red, white and blue has always flowed through
my veins. I am a true American and just like you, I knew it was time to speak
up. This National Animal Identification System shouldn’t even be an
issue! So many brave soldiers have already fought and died for our freedom.
This is disgraceful! I should not have to be standing here before you trying
to preserve our freedom! All of America needs to know exactly what this National
Animal ID System really is.
Our government, some big corporations and associations are seeing some BIG
dollar signs right now in a National Animal ID System. They are saying to
heck with the small farmers, ranchers, our livelihood, our freedom, our privacy
and our property rights! This is unreal! They want to make us register our
farms and ranches. They want us to hand over all of our personal farm information.
They want us to get a premise ID number for our ranches…and if we don’t?
A $1,000 a day fine can add up real quick.
Pay the government to own a farm in America or be criminalized? Are you kidding
me?
Make no mistake! This is already the law in Texas thanks to HB 1361, which
for some reason, no farmer or ranch that I know even knew was coming at us.
WHO know? Some big lobbyists for some big corporations! We were blindsided!
That law gave the TAHC full authority to force us to register our farms and
get a premise ID number or be fined. (The TAHC has postponed enforcing HB
1361 for now, but make no mistake, they can choose to enforce that law at
any time). Some people were even signed up without their knowledge. Are you
kidding me? What’s going on here?
Our own tax dollars were used against us! Over 85 million dollars of OUR money
was distributed to many associations and organizations that we belong to just
to promote this nonsense! They tried to make us think that NAIS is the greatest
thing since sliced bread. They tried to make us sound like we were exaggerating
the dangers and that all of our fellow members of these associations were
all for it. The fact is, we weren’t even polled for our opinion. They
also used fear tactics about disease and bio-terrorism to scare everyone.
Are you kidding me? Terrorists would hit those huge factory farms before they
would attack a small family farm!
I want to talk to you about horses for a moment. I’ve known horses all
of my life. We raise horses. We own them. We paid for them. They are our private
property. I’ve never known a single person that got a disease from their
horse. I don’t eat horses. I don’t export horses. Besides making
us pay a fee to register our ranch they also want us to insert a foreign object
into our horse’s necks. A microchip…not a theft prevention microchip,
mind you, but a different kind of microchip. And guess what? They want us
to pay for that too!
My horses can’t drive. They don’t go any place alone. They are
behind me in our trailer when I go to a rodeo or barrel race. So who will
they be tracking? Now, think about that a moment, I would call that warrant-less
surveillance! On top of that, they want me to send them a written report of
my trips with my horses within 24 hours! Are you kidding me? It’s none
of the government’s business which rodeo or barrel race I attend. I
haven’t committed a crime! I’m not on probation! I’m not
a criminal!
And what about those microchips? There haven’t been any government studies
conducted, that I know of, concerning the migration of microchips in a horse’s
body nor any studies on the long-term affects on their health. But really,
they don’t care about me or my horses. They only see dollar signs. They
don’t care that microchips can contain viruses or be re-programmed.
They don’t care that we cannot afford a bale of hay or fuel to run our
tractors right now. They don’t care about the grandma with a backyard
flock of laying hens that has to catach every one of them to see which leg
band the coyotes ate!
Are you kidding me? They don’t care if the small farmers and ranchers
go out of business! Why? The big corporate ranches and factory farms will
be our only food supply and “He who controls our food supply, controls
us!”
Another thing…some farmers and ranchers are probably going to refuse
to take their horses and livestock to a veterinarian when they’re sick
or injured…out of fear. Fear of being fined and forced to buy a Premise
ID number before any services will be rendered. That will be another shame.
There is NO logic to this plan. The whole thing is about money! They keep
telling us “this will be good for you” but they haven’t
told me how. Com on! Disease has been on this earth for millions of years!
We already have great stop measures, immediate quarantines and “trace
back” for sick farm animals. Except of course for the all of the wild
animals and insects…like the feral hogs, coyotes, mosquitoes and flies!
How about tracking them? Are you kidding me? They can’t even track the
illegal aliens in this country!
It’s a crying shame and a ruse to get more money, steal our freedom
and property rights, track every detail of our lives and keep us from being
self sufficient on the family farm! It’s an unprecedented, daring invasion
of our privacy and they are counting on non-farm people and town folks to
remain uneducated on the subject while they push their agenda through under
the auspices of disease fears.
Don’t let it happen! Tell everyone you know! It’s un-American
and it’s a disgrace! Don’t let your children and grandchildren
ever ask you why you stood by and did nothing when the government was taking
away our freedom, our privacy and right to freely own a farm animal in America!
– Pam Cantwell