An email update from My Cattle.com showed up in my inbox today that had a really misleading teaser on it. It proposed that the national ID program would offer an overlooked benefit, protection against cattle theft. "One of the most basic incentives to have cattle permanently identified is theft."
On the surface there is no problem with that statement. True permanent ID, such as branding or tattooing, provides a lasting way to tell one cow from another.
However, the story's author added this pure BS statement that really got my dander up, "In the falderal (their spelling not mine) surrounding livestock ID and the tragicomedy that has become the National Animal Identification System, it's too easy to lose sight of one of the most basic incentives to have cattle permanently identified: theft."
Balderdash! NAIS is all about selling ear tags and keeping data bases on farm activities and has nothing to do with preventing theft in any way, shape or form.
Even though the author of the article never said in so many words that ear tags equal permanent ID comparable to brands or tattoos, that premise was strongly implied.
Sorry, tags in cows ears are about as permanent as drifting snowflakes in Florida. If they don't fall out or the cows don't rip them out, it is easy as pie for a thief to cut them out.
Such malarkey, it just kills me.
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Is this sort of the equivalent to needing one of those scanner cards to shop at some supermarket chains? They give you bogus reasons - get better pricing! - but really it's a way to track demographics and target advertising at individual shoppers...
ReplyDeleteI have wondered if at some point, people who eat too much fatty or junk food might start getting "helpful" communications from the Surgeon General, or information getting collected by your health insurance company...maybe I'm being paranoid! I have those cards but give a made-up name and address. Heh.
(No, I don't see black helicopters LOL.)
Hi carina, that is just what it is, a scanner tag for every cow, individual ID for chickens, horses, you name it. You are not paranoid. Big brother is here and he wants all your info, right down to whether you have an alarm clock to wake you up or a rooster to do the crowing.
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