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OPINION
It seems the cases of mad cow disease, bird flu, and who knows maybe even irritated rabbit, have sparked a whole new level of Federal Regulation. The Feds have initiated a Premise Registry where they want information allowing them to trace any animal back to every farm, ranch, fair, or sale barn it may have had contact with. The “voluntary” plan is to register your ranch and farm, not just brand or keep records on your animals. In Colorado you are already assumed guilty until proven innocent where livestock is concerned. With laws dating back to the outlaw cattle rustling days of the old west, Colorado and most western states already assume livestock owners/haulers are criminals until they prove ownership or legal possession of the animals. This Registry could even pertain to your back yard if you are a 4-Her raising rabbits or chickens. The Cooperative Extension Office at Colorado State University has decided after October 2007, 4-H and FFA animal entry’s from hamsters to horses will only be allowed to compete if the premises where the animals are raised is in the Registry. So much for voluntary. At some point we have to be OK with knowing the government can not keep us safe from every possible wrong. If not the government who? Some things are personal responsibility issues like wearing seat belts and obeying traffic signals. It is the things beyond our control that people sometimes want the government to protect them from. Take the recent tainted hamburger incident that hit Wal-Mart and Safeway. It is in the best interest of the retailer to sell nothing but “safe” products. Given what this one incident has cost these two chains in lost sales you can bet they are doing everything possible to insure this is not repeated. I wouldn’t want to be on other end of selling tainted meat to either a Wal-Mart or Safeway. There is only so much government can protect you from and even less a reasonable level of government should protect you from. For the commercial livestock operations it is predicted the regulation will not be needed within 3 to 4 years because “market forces will dictate the need to have your premises registered”. If market forces are going to take care of the “problem”, let market forces run its course. The Hisey boys may not have had cattle at the 4-H fair if our parents farm had been required to have been part of the “Registry”. With no next generation of 4-Her’s in the family it is easy to say it wouldn’t happen now either, but using programs as good as 4-H and FFA is unfair leverage to implement a “volunteer” program.
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