Check out some pics from the National Red Setter Field Trial Club National Shooting Dog Championships and supporting stakes, held this past November in Grove Spring MO...
http://picasaweb.google.com/redpups1/NRSFTCFall2008#
Go red dogs!!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Lame Ducks May Bite Ohio Dog Owners
Posted by John Yates on 12/9/2008
Lame Ducks May Bite Dog Owners In Ohio
by JOHN YATES
American Sporting Dog Alliance http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org
asda@csonline.net
COLUMBUS, OH – The Ohio State Senate appears to be trying to ram through legislation that will burden all dog owners in the fading days of the current legislative session, which expires Dec. 31. Last week, with no notice given to most dog owners, the Senate State and Local Government and Veterans Affairs Committee held hearings on House Bill 446. The 100-page-plus document amends the Ohio Animal Control Law in several ways that are detrimental to dog owners. Another hearing is set for today, Tuesday Dec. 9, at 2:30 PM or after the end of the day’s Senate session. It will be held in the Finance Hearing Room. The American Sporting Dog Alliance has been cautioning dog owners to prepare for a sneak attack in the “lame duck” session, between the General Election in November and the end of the year. “Lame duck” sessions are notorious for passing politically unpopular legislation because senators and legislators won’t have to face the voters again for at least two years, and some of them are not accountable to anyone except their own consciences, as they will not be returning in January. HB 446 passed the state House by a large margin in May and was sent to the Senate, where pressure from dog owners kept it bottled up in committee before the election, when elected officials were not inclined to cast controversial votes. The Senate Committee is not scheduled to vote on the legislation today, although it is in its power to do so. Amendments to the bill also are possible today. If the committee approves the legislation, it will be sent to the full Senate for a vote. If the Senate passes it before the end of the month, it will return to the House for a concurrence vote on any changes, and could be sent to the Governor for signature or veto. If the bill is not passed by Dec. 31, it is dead and will have to be reintroduced next year. Here are some of the provisions in HB 446: · Increases the minimum fee for a dog license from $2 to $10. However, most counties have much higher fees. All puppies must be licensed at three month of age. · Increases the fee for a kennel license from $10 to $50, plus requires every dog and puppy to be individually licensed. Many counties will be charging around $75 for a kennel license, plus $15 for each dog and puppy. Anyone who breeds even a single litter of puppies for hunting or for sale is defined as a kennel owner. · Kennels must be inspected, and the kennel license can be revoked if the inspecting agency alleges that the owner has committed an act of animal cruelty or neglect. This allegation does not have to be proven, and many animal cruelty police officers reportedly have close ties to radical animal rights groups, such as the Humane Society of the United States and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. · All dogs over three months of age that are kept in a kennel or outdoors must wear a license tag at all times. Dogs found without a license tag may be confiscated, euthanized or adopted through an animal shelter. The same rules apply to a dog wearing a license tag if it is lost while hunting or competing in a field trial. · Dog wardens can confiscate and destroy any dog that is alleged to be running at large, if the person who makes the accusation files an affidavit in court. No proof is required that the complaint is factual. · The sale of an unlicensed dog or puppy is prohibited, and people who move to Ohio are given only one business day to license their dogs, or face possible fines, confiscation and the destruction of a beloved pets. · Individual dog owners would be prohibited from giving rabies vaccinations to dogs that they own. This is currently legal, and there have been no reports of problems with this law. All rabies vaccinations would have to be done by a veterinarian for dogs, cats and ferrets, under this legislation. · Good Samaritans who find a lost dog would be discouraged by rules that require reporting the dog to animal control within two days, and either adopting it or turning it over to animal control would be required within 14 days. The person who finds the dog would be prohibited from finding a home for it, or turning it over to a private rescue organization. · The bill would open the door to thefts of dogs by animal rights activists, and also encourage the takeover of local Humane Societies by animal rights activists. · And several changes to the laws about dangerous dogs. Thus far, the testimony at Senate hearings has been strongly in opposition to many aspects of HB 446. The American Sporting Dog Alliance has voiced strong opposition to this legislation in both formal written testimony and in letters to each senator and legislator. The state association for veterinarians has testified in support of the legislation, but testimony has focused only on the rabies issue and a requirement for animal shelters to scan every animal for microchips. Rep. Shawn Webster, the bill’s prime sponsor and a veterinarian, has offered 19 possible amendments to HB 446 to address concerns expressed in the testimony, but thus far none of these possible amendments has been formally introduced. What You Can Do Please immediately contact every member of the Senate State and Local Government and Veterans Affairs Committee to voice your strong opposition to HB 446. Please state clearly that you are opposed to this legislation, and also mention your reasons. Here is a link to the Committee’s website: http://www.senate.state.oh.us/committees/com_state.html. Each member’s name is highlighted, and contact information can be found by clicking on the senator’s name. Because of the late date, phone and fax are the best methods to contact the senators. Emails and surface mail also may be effective. Here is a link to the actual legislation that passed the House in May and was sent to the Senate: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=127_HB_446. The American Sporting Dog Alliance represents owners, breeders and professionals who work with breeds of dogs that are used for hunting. We welcome people who work with other breeds, too, as legislative issues affect all of us. We are a grassroots movement working to protect the rights of dog owners, and to assure that the traditional relationships between dogs and humans maintains its rightful place in American society and life. The American Sporting Dog Alliance also needs your help so that we can continue to work to protect the rights of dog owners. Your membership, participation and support are truly essential to the success of our mission. We are funded solely by the donations of our members, and maintain strict independence.
Please visit us on the web at http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org.
Our email is ASDA@csonline.net.
PLEASE CROSS-POST AND FORWARD THIS REPORT TO YOUR FRIENDS
Lame Ducks May Bite Dog Owners In Ohio
by JOHN YATES
American Sporting Dog Alliance http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org
asda@csonline.net
COLUMBUS, OH – The Ohio State Senate appears to be trying to ram through legislation that will burden all dog owners in the fading days of the current legislative session, which expires Dec. 31. Last week, with no notice given to most dog owners, the Senate State and Local Government and Veterans Affairs Committee held hearings on House Bill 446. The 100-page-plus document amends the Ohio Animal Control Law in several ways that are detrimental to dog owners. Another hearing is set for today, Tuesday Dec. 9, at 2:30 PM or after the end of the day’s Senate session. It will be held in the Finance Hearing Room. The American Sporting Dog Alliance has been cautioning dog owners to prepare for a sneak attack in the “lame duck” session, between the General Election in November and the end of the year. “Lame duck” sessions are notorious for passing politically unpopular legislation because senators and legislators won’t have to face the voters again for at least two years, and some of them are not accountable to anyone except their own consciences, as they will not be returning in January. HB 446 passed the state House by a large margin in May and was sent to the Senate, where pressure from dog owners kept it bottled up in committee before the election, when elected officials were not inclined to cast controversial votes. The Senate Committee is not scheduled to vote on the legislation today, although it is in its power to do so. Amendments to the bill also are possible today. If the committee approves the legislation, it will be sent to the full Senate for a vote. If the Senate passes it before the end of the month, it will return to the House for a concurrence vote on any changes, and could be sent to the Governor for signature or veto. If the bill is not passed by Dec. 31, it is dead and will have to be reintroduced next year. Here are some of the provisions in HB 446: · Increases the minimum fee for a dog license from $2 to $10. However, most counties have much higher fees. All puppies must be licensed at three month of age. · Increases the fee for a kennel license from $10 to $50, plus requires every dog and puppy to be individually licensed. Many counties will be charging around $75 for a kennel license, plus $15 for each dog and puppy. Anyone who breeds even a single litter of puppies for hunting or for sale is defined as a kennel owner. · Kennels must be inspected, and the kennel license can be revoked if the inspecting agency alleges that the owner has committed an act of animal cruelty or neglect. This allegation does not have to be proven, and many animal cruelty police officers reportedly have close ties to radical animal rights groups, such as the Humane Society of the United States and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. · All dogs over three months of age that are kept in a kennel or outdoors must wear a license tag at all times. Dogs found without a license tag may be confiscated, euthanized or adopted through an animal shelter. The same rules apply to a dog wearing a license tag if it is lost while hunting or competing in a field trial. · Dog wardens can confiscate and destroy any dog that is alleged to be running at large, if the person who makes the accusation files an affidavit in court. No proof is required that the complaint is factual. · The sale of an unlicensed dog or puppy is prohibited, and people who move to Ohio are given only one business day to license their dogs, or face possible fines, confiscation and the destruction of a beloved pets. · Individual dog owners would be prohibited from giving rabies vaccinations to dogs that they own. This is currently legal, and there have been no reports of problems with this law. All rabies vaccinations would have to be done by a veterinarian for dogs, cats and ferrets, under this legislation. · Good Samaritans who find a lost dog would be discouraged by rules that require reporting the dog to animal control within two days, and either adopting it or turning it over to animal control would be required within 14 days. The person who finds the dog would be prohibited from finding a home for it, or turning it over to a private rescue organization. · The bill would open the door to thefts of dogs by animal rights activists, and also encourage the takeover of local Humane Societies by animal rights activists. · And several changes to the laws about dangerous dogs. Thus far, the testimony at Senate hearings has been strongly in opposition to many aspects of HB 446. The American Sporting Dog Alliance has voiced strong opposition to this legislation in both formal written testimony and in letters to each senator and legislator. The state association for veterinarians has testified in support of the legislation, but testimony has focused only on the rabies issue and a requirement for animal shelters to scan every animal for microchips. Rep. Shawn Webster, the bill’s prime sponsor and a veterinarian, has offered 19 possible amendments to HB 446 to address concerns expressed in the testimony, but thus far none of these possible amendments has been formally introduced. What You Can Do Please immediately contact every member of the Senate State and Local Government and Veterans Affairs Committee to voice your strong opposition to HB 446. Please state clearly that you are opposed to this legislation, and also mention your reasons. Here is a link to the Committee’s website: http://www.senate.state.oh.us/committees/com_state.html. Each member’s name is highlighted, and contact information can be found by clicking on the senator’s name. Because of the late date, phone and fax are the best methods to contact the senators. Emails and surface mail also may be effective. Here is a link to the actual legislation that passed the House in May and was sent to the Senate: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=127_HB_446. The American Sporting Dog Alliance represents owners, breeders and professionals who work with breeds of dogs that are used for hunting. We welcome people who work with other breeds, too, as legislative issues affect all of us. We are a grassroots movement working to protect the rights of dog owners, and to assure that the traditional relationships between dogs and humans maintains its rightful place in American society and life. The American Sporting Dog Alliance also needs your help so that we can continue to work to protect the rights of dog owners. Your membership, participation and support are truly essential to the success of our mission. We are funded solely by the donations of our members, and maintain strict independence.
Please visit us on the web at http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org.
Our email is ASDA@csonline.net.
PLEASE CROSS-POST AND FORWARD THIS REPORT TO YOUR FRIENDS
Sunday, December 7, 2008
The Fart Tax And You...
A couple of days ago I posted some information regarding the EPA's attempts to place a tax on cattle and other ruminants... well, John Yates sent me this email today, and his eloquance regarding this issue is much better than mine, so I had to post his comments... and seriously, it's not just a bunch of "hot air"... you need to read this...
The ‘Fart Tax’ and You
by JOHN YATES
American Sporting Dog Alliance
http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org
asda@csonline.net
by JOHN YATES
American Sporting Dog Alliance
http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org
asda@csonline.net
As if there isn’t enough to worry about, the federal Environmental Protection Agency is telling us that cow farts are hurting the atmosphere and contributing to global warming.
You can stop laughing now.
It’s true! No kidding! EPA actually is proposing to regulate farmers and ranchers to protect us from emissions from flatulent hogs and cows.
The deadline for comments on the proposed anti-fart regulations passed quietly a week ago.
If the regulations are approved, farmers and ranchers with at least 25 head of livestock will be taxed at $175 per dairy cow, $87.50 per beef cow and $20 per hog.
Preposterous, you might say, and you’re right.
But we would call it something else. We would call it calculated and deliberate.
It stems directly from the animal rights agenda, which is aimed at eliminating animals from American life, including animals that produce meat, milk, eggs and wool. The goal is to reinvent America as a vegan vegetarian society.
We imagine that many of you are still laughing, and some of you might be wondering if we’re nuts.
It is preposterous! America loves a good t-bone, Big Macs, milkshakes and eggs fried in sausage drippings. Yum.
You are correct in thinking that Americans will not allow meat, eggs and dairy products to be removed from our lives. Surveys show that more than 95-percent of us eat meat and love every bite we can get, and we would never agree to give it up.
What you may not be thinking is that no one is planning to give us that choice. In fact, the animal rights groups’ strategy is to not even bring up the subject.
The following analysis can be seen as a case study of one major way that the animal rights agenda actually is being implemented in America today. While this example is about the planned elimination of meat, eggs and dairy products from our lives, slight variations in the same strategy also are being used to eliminate companion animals, circuses, rodeos and hunting.
The animal rights groups may be evil personified, but their leaders aren’t dumb. They know that Americans will not give up animal products voluntarily, and they aren’t going to try the direct approach. They’d lose, and they know it.
Their tactic is to indirectly and gradually take away our ability to choose to eat meat.
The strategy is to make animal products too expensive for people to use and enjoy regularly, and also to make farming unprofitable and more hassle than it’s worth.
Did you notice how the price of beef skyrocketed after the “mad cow disease” scare a couple of years ago? In about a month, most cuts of beef went up by about two dollars a pound.
The reason is that meat producers were assessed for the cost of a massive federal inspection and regulatory program, and for developing a way to track each animal from the slaughterhouse back in time to the place of its birth.
Suddenly, a halfway decent steak costs $10 a pound. If you’re lucky, you can find it on sale for $6.99 or so. Maybe.
How many people can afford that?
For most people, a juicy t-bone steak probably always has been only an occasional treat, perhaps once or twice a month. Now, it has become once or twice a year.
Have you noticed how small the meat section has become in most grocery stores? Have you noticed how small the portions have become?
I define a good steak as one pound or larger and marbled with fat. Most steaks in the grocery store are a little more than half that size today. The meat looks like the cow was anorexic and it takes a chainsaw to cut it.
Part of the reason is the artificially high price of beef, which we’ll document below. Another part of it is the health scare about cholesterol.
While cholesterol is a valid health concern for many people, the animal rights groups are exploiting this and other health issues to try to make people afraid to eat much meat.
I recall a billboard along I-35 in Dallas that was a photo of former President Ronald Reagan, linking his meat eating preferences with Alzheimer’s disease. Guess who sponsored this crude and tasteless billboard? It wasn’t the American Medical Association. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) paid for the billboard.
If Alzheimer’s doesn’t get you, “mad cow” disease or cholesterol will. That’s the message.
Meat already is being heavily taxed because of the brief “mad cow” disease scare. Now, EPA wants to tax it more because of cow fart emissions.
What’s next? A tax on meat because of its health risks similar to the extra taxes on cigarettes?
Yep. Give ‘em time. It won’t be long before some governmental agency proposes a big tax on every pound of meat to pay for “prevention” programs in the schools and social services agencies, mirrored after the tobacco use prevention campaigns. You’ll know the time has come when you start to see news reports about meat eaters driving up the cost of health insurance.
Enter the $20 a pound t-bone steak.
Exit meat from many people’s budgets.
That’s the plan, but it doesn’t stop here. Another big step is the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), which currently is “voluntary” but is expected to become mandatory soon.
The NAIS plan is to license every location that produces poultry and livestock, and to assign each farm or ranch owner a unique identification number (that also applies to someone who owns a horse, or a couple of 4H goats). Then, at some point, every domestic animal and bird on American farms will be microchipped to identify its place of birth, and it will be tracked on computer all the way from the farm to the grocery store.
Guess how much that is going to cost? Guess who will pay for it?
Microchips can be purchased in bulk today for about $1.50 apiece. Suddenly the $3 frying chicken sold at the grocery store for $1.39 a pound has become a $4.50 chicken.
Add in the cost of bureaucracy and additional expenses for farmers, shippers and slaughterhouses, and it becomes a $6.50 chicken.
A lot of Americans won’t be able to afford to eat much chicken at those prices. It looks like a good time to invest your money in bean burrito company stock.
And that is precisely the plan!
The bureaucratic and compliance costs of NAIA will be enormous. Imagine what it will take to constantly track a truckload of 10,000 chickens individually on computers!
What’s the justification for these costs? “Bird flu,” of course, even though no form of this poultry disease that is communicable to humans has ever been found in the Americas.
The animal rights groups know exactly what they are doing. They find something scary about meat (Alzheimer’s disease, cholesterol, “Mad Cow” disease or “bird flu”) and then work quietly behind the scenes to exploit it. They have a lot of flunky newspaper and TV reporters in their pockets, and a lot of bureaucrats are smelling a lot of job security.
And soon a frying chicken will cost $6.50…for a small one.
The other side to NAIS is the burden to farmers and the rest of the food industry. Can you imagine the cost to a farmer of microchipping 100,000 chickens a month! How many employees will the farmer have to hire? How many fines will farmers face for microchips that come out? How many people will the trucking companies and slaughterhouses have to employ to scan a few million chickens a day for microchips?
Maybe it will be a $7.50 chicken, if we’re lucky.
“What’s for supper, Honey?”
“Two chicken McNuggets and beans, Sweetheart.”
That’s the plan.
NAIS will be applied first to cattle, hogs and poultry, but also to horses. A person who owns a couple of pleasure horses would have to report to the federal computer anytime they take a ride off of their property. Lord help them if they want to travel with their horses!
Many people believe dogs and cats will be next for NAIS.
Another prong in the animal rights plan is to regulate or eliminate what they allege are cruel “factory farming” practices, such as raising hens for egg production in battery cages. Farmers defend these practices, saying that all of the known needs of chickens are being met, and also that these methods keep the cost of food reasonable so that poor and working class people can afford to have better diets.
But the farmers lost a big battle last month with the overwhelming voter approval of Proposition 2 in California. Following this referendum, almost every egg farm in California will be put out of business.
Only free range chickens, or chickens kept in traditional henhouses, will be permissible. Expect the cost of a dozen eggs to jump to $3 or so. Make it $4 when you factor in NAIS, and $5 when you add the cost of “bird flu” insurance.
Don’t worry. You’ll enjoy bean McMuffins.
Look for a law resembling Proposition 2 to become nationwide within the next few years.
Of course, you can’t have a law without also having cops to enforce it. Every one of these programs will open up every farm in America to unannounced inspections, visits by animal cruelty officers and even vigilante spies from animal rights groups.
How much money will farmers have to spend on attorney fees, paying fines for technical violations (the chicken that lost its microchip), or rebuilding facilities, upgrading computer systems and hiring new employees?
How many farmers will say “enough is enough” and throw in the towel?
How many people will be able to afford to buy milk at $8 a gallon, eggs at $5 a dozen, steaks at $20 a pounds, hamburger at $10 or sausage at $12?
We saw the same thing happen in a different form this year, when HSUS exposed cruelty at a California slaughterhouse. A video showed a downer cow being pushed with a loader. It was a cruel act by a callous employee.
But the firestorm of protest over that incident brought a host of new federal regulations and increased inspections of slaughterhouses, even though the incident was a clear violation of existing laws and regulations by a single employee. The problem could have been solved easily and simply, but it wasn’t.
Instead, your steak went up another 50-cents a pound.
“Dollars-and-cents” is the most effective strategy the animal rights groups have discovered. Who cares if you want to eat meat if you can’t afford to buy it!
Your choices become a moot point.
No matter where you look, activists and social reformers want to use money to limit your choices.
Environmentalists want gasoline to cost $20 a gallon, so you’ll use less of it.
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) wants a hamburger to cost $15 at McDonalds, so that you’ll eat your veggie burgers and shut up.
They want gasoline to be expensive, because this will drive up the price of corn used for animal feed and fuel to transport all of America’s foodstuffs, and thus the price of meat for consumers. If gasoline rises to $10 a gallon, you won’t be eating much meat.
HSUS wants to make you pay a few thousand dollars for liability insurance to own a gun, so that you won’t be able to afford to go hunting. Thus, hunting can be eliminated without any politician ever having to cast a vote to do it.
And they also want the price of a puppy to be about $5,000, so that only rich people will be able to afford one and the vast majority of Americans will forget what it is like to love and be loved by a dog.
Wars have been won without ever firing a shot.
And the animal rights war will be won in your pocketbook, if you don’t wise up.
The American Sporting Dog Alliance
You can stop laughing now.
It’s true! No kidding! EPA actually is proposing to regulate farmers and ranchers to protect us from emissions from flatulent hogs and cows.
The deadline for comments on the proposed anti-fart regulations passed quietly a week ago.
If the regulations are approved, farmers and ranchers with at least 25 head of livestock will be taxed at $175 per dairy cow, $87.50 per beef cow and $20 per hog.
Preposterous, you might say, and you’re right.
But we would call it something else. We would call it calculated and deliberate.
It stems directly from the animal rights agenda, which is aimed at eliminating animals from American life, including animals that produce meat, milk, eggs and wool. The goal is to reinvent America as a vegan vegetarian society.
We imagine that many of you are still laughing, and some of you might be wondering if we’re nuts.
It is preposterous! America loves a good t-bone, Big Macs, milkshakes and eggs fried in sausage drippings. Yum.
You are correct in thinking that Americans will not allow meat, eggs and dairy products to be removed from our lives. Surveys show that more than 95-percent of us eat meat and love every bite we can get, and we would never agree to give it up.
What you may not be thinking is that no one is planning to give us that choice. In fact, the animal rights groups’ strategy is to not even bring up the subject.
The following analysis can be seen as a case study of one major way that the animal rights agenda actually is being implemented in America today. While this example is about the planned elimination of meat, eggs and dairy products from our lives, slight variations in the same strategy also are being used to eliminate companion animals, circuses, rodeos and hunting.
The animal rights groups may be evil personified, but their leaders aren’t dumb. They know that Americans will not give up animal products voluntarily, and they aren’t going to try the direct approach. They’d lose, and they know it.
Their tactic is to indirectly and gradually take away our ability to choose to eat meat.
The strategy is to make animal products too expensive for people to use and enjoy regularly, and also to make farming unprofitable and more hassle than it’s worth.
Did you notice how the price of beef skyrocketed after the “mad cow disease” scare a couple of years ago? In about a month, most cuts of beef went up by about two dollars a pound.
The reason is that meat producers were assessed for the cost of a massive federal inspection and regulatory program, and for developing a way to track each animal from the slaughterhouse back in time to the place of its birth.
Suddenly, a halfway decent steak costs $10 a pound. If you’re lucky, you can find it on sale for $6.99 or so. Maybe.
How many people can afford that?
For most people, a juicy t-bone steak probably always has been only an occasional treat, perhaps once or twice a month. Now, it has become once or twice a year.
Have you noticed how small the meat section has become in most grocery stores? Have you noticed how small the portions have become?
I define a good steak as one pound or larger and marbled with fat. Most steaks in the grocery store are a little more than half that size today. The meat looks like the cow was anorexic and it takes a chainsaw to cut it.
Part of the reason is the artificially high price of beef, which we’ll document below. Another part of it is the health scare about cholesterol.
While cholesterol is a valid health concern for many people, the animal rights groups are exploiting this and other health issues to try to make people afraid to eat much meat.
I recall a billboard along I-35 in Dallas that was a photo of former President Ronald Reagan, linking his meat eating preferences with Alzheimer’s disease. Guess who sponsored this crude and tasteless billboard? It wasn’t the American Medical Association. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) paid for the billboard.
If Alzheimer’s doesn’t get you, “mad cow” disease or cholesterol will. That’s the message.
Meat already is being heavily taxed because of the brief “mad cow” disease scare. Now, EPA wants to tax it more because of cow fart emissions.
What’s next? A tax on meat because of its health risks similar to the extra taxes on cigarettes?
Yep. Give ‘em time. It won’t be long before some governmental agency proposes a big tax on every pound of meat to pay for “prevention” programs in the schools and social services agencies, mirrored after the tobacco use prevention campaigns. You’ll know the time has come when you start to see news reports about meat eaters driving up the cost of health insurance.
Enter the $20 a pound t-bone steak.
Exit meat from many people’s budgets.
That’s the plan, but it doesn’t stop here. Another big step is the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), which currently is “voluntary” but is expected to become mandatory soon.
The NAIS plan is to license every location that produces poultry and livestock, and to assign each farm or ranch owner a unique identification number (that also applies to someone who owns a horse, or a couple of 4H goats). Then, at some point, every domestic animal and bird on American farms will be microchipped to identify its place of birth, and it will be tracked on computer all the way from the farm to the grocery store.
Guess how much that is going to cost? Guess who will pay for it?
Microchips can be purchased in bulk today for about $1.50 apiece. Suddenly the $3 frying chicken sold at the grocery store for $1.39 a pound has become a $4.50 chicken.
Add in the cost of bureaucracy and additional expenses for farmers, shippers and slaughterhouses, and it becomes a $6.50 chicken.
A lot of Americans won’t be able to afford to eat much chicken at those prices. It looks like a good time to invest your money in bean burrito company stock.
And that is precisely the plan!
The bureaucratic and compliance costs of NAIA will be enormous. Imagine what it will take to constantly track a truckload of 10,000 chickens individually on computers!
What’s the justification for these costs? “Bird flu,” of course, even though no form of this poultry disease that is communicable to humans has ever been found in the Americas.
The animal rights groups know exactly what they are doing. They find something scary about meat (Alzheimer’s disease, cholesterol, “Mad Cow” disease or “bird flu”) and then work quietly behind the scenes to exploit it. They have a lot of flunky newspaper and TV reporters in their pockets, and a lot of bureaucrats are smelling a lot of job security.
And soon a frying chicken will cost $6.50…for a small one.
The other side to NAIS is the burden to farmers and the rest of the food industry. Can you imagine the cost to a farmer of microchipping 100,000 chickens a month! How many employees will the farmer have to hire? How many fines will farmers face for microchips that come out? How many people will the trucking companies and slaughterhouses have to employ to scan a few million chickens a day for microchips?
Maybe it will be a $7.50 chicken, if we’re lucky.
“What’s for supper, Honey?”
“Two chicken McNuggets and beans, Sweetheart.”
That’s the plan.
NAIS will be applied first to cattle, hogs and poultry, but also to horses. A person who owns a couple of pleasure horses would have to report to the federal computer anytime they take a ride off of their property. Lord help them if they want to travel with their horses!
Many people believe dogs and cats will be next for NAIS.
Another prong in the animal rights plan is to regulate or eliminate what they allege are cruel “factory farming” practices, such as raising hens for egg production in battery cages. Farmers defend these practices, saying that all of the known needs of chickens are being met, and also that these methods keep the cost of food reasonable so that poor and working class people can afford to have better diets.
But the farmers lost a big battle last month with the overwhelming voter approval of Proposition 2 in California. Following this referendum, almost every egg farm in California will be put out of business.
Only free range chickens, or chickens kept in traditional henhouses, will be permissible. Expect the cost of a dozen eggs to jump to $3 or so. Make it $4 when you factor in NAIS, and $5 when you add the cost of “bird flu” insurance.
Don’t worry. You’ll enjoy bean McMuffins.
Look for a law resembling Proposition 2 to become nationwide within the next few years.
Of course, you can’t have a law without also having cops to enforce it. Every one of these programs will open up every farm in America to unannounced inspections, visits by animal cruelty officers and even vigilante spies from animal rights groups.
How much money will farmers have to spend on attorney fees, paying fines for technical violations (the chicken that lost its microchip), or rebuilding facilities, upgrading computer systems and hiring new employees?
How many farmers will say “enough is enough” and throw in the towel?
How many people will be able to afford to buy milk at $8 a gallon, eggs at $5 a dozen, steaks at $20 a pounds, hamburger at $10 or sausage at $12?
We saw the same thing happen in a different form this year, when HSUS exposed cruelty at a California slaughterhouse. A video showed a downer cow being pushed with a loader. It was a cruel act by a callous employee.
But the firestorm of protest over that incident brought a host of new federal regulations and increased inspections of slaughterhouses, even though the incident was a clear violation of existing laws and regulations by a single employee. The problem could have been solved easily and simply, but it wasn’t.
Instead, your steak went up another 50-cents a pound.
“Dollars-and-cents” is the most effective strategy the animal rights groups have discovered. Who cares if you want to eat meat if you can’t afford to buy it!
Your choices become a moot point.
No matter where you look, activists and social reformers want to use money to limit your choices.
Environmentalists want gasoline to cost $20 a gallon, so you’ll use less of it.
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) wants a hamburger to cost $15 at McDonalds, so that you’ll eat your veggie burgers and shut up.
They want gasoline to be expensive, because this will drive up the price of corn used for animal feed and fuel to transport all of America’s foodstuffs, and thus the price of meat for consumers. If gasoline rises to $10 a gallon, you won’t be eating much meat.
HSUS wants to make you pay a few thousand dollars for liability insurance to own a gun, so that you won’t be able to afford to go hunting. Thus, hunting can be eliminated without any politician ever having to cast a vote to do it.
And they also want the price of a puppy to be about $5,000, so that only rich people will be able to afford one and the vast majority of Americans will forget what it is like to love and be loved by a dog.
Wars have been won without ever firing a shot.
And the animal rights war will be won in your pocketbook, if you don’t wise up.
The American Sporting Dog Alliance
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
New Trial Grounds In Ohio...
As part of the negotiations between the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) and the Associated Bird Dog Clubs of Ohio (ABDCO) over the status of field trial grounds in Ohio, the ODNR has offered a section of the Tri-Valley Wildlife Management Area to be used for field trialing. This is being offered in exchange for the loss of Killdeer Plains WMA in northwestern Ohio and Indian Creek WMA in southwestern Ohio, both which will be removed from approved field trial events next year.
Tri Valley WMA is a 16,200 acre parcel located in Muskingham County, which is central south east Ohio (directly east of Columbus). A map of the area is available at http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Portals/9/Images/hunting/Wildlife%20Area%20Maps/pub099.gif
Here are some pics of the proposed field trial grounds, offered courtesy of ABDCO...
Tri Valley WMA is a 16,200 acre parcel located in Muskingham County, which is central south east Ohio (directly east of Columbus). A map of the area is available at http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Portals/9/Images/hunting/Wildlife%20Area%20Maps/pub099.gif
Here are some pics of the proposed field trial grounds, offered courtesy of ABDCO...
(Note: please do NOT contact ODNR directly regarding the status of the trial grounds... negotiations are ongoing and sensitive; the ABDCO is the official contact. You may reach them for information at ohioabdco@yahoo.com)
Monday, December 1, 2008
Not Just Hot Air...
If you like eating dairy products or beef, you need to read this and take some action...
The American Farm Bureau Federation has registered its opposition to an Environmental Protection Agency proposal to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, asserting it would essentially result in new taxes on livestock operations.“Steep fees associated with this action would force many producers out of business. The net result would likely be higher consumer costs for milk, beef and pork,” said Mark Maslyn, AFBF executive director of public policy, in comments submitted to EPA.According to Agriculture Department figures, any farm or ranch with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs emits more than 100 tons of carbon equivalent per year, and thus would need to obtain a permit under the proposed rules. More than 90 percent of U.S. dairy, beef and pork production would be affected by the proposal. The fee for dairy cattle would be $175 per dairy cow and $87.50 for every head of beef cattle.
Cattle and other ruminants produce methane, a greenhouse gas, as a natural byproduct of the animal’s digestive process. However, globally ruminants only account for roughly 26% of methane emissions resulting from human activities. Methane is also produced by landfills (the largest US human-caused source of methane) and the production of natural gas (the second largest US source). Methane is also produced by manure management, treatment of wastewater, rice cultivation, wetlands, and the burning of forests and grasslands. The complex regulatory schemes of the three primary Clean Air Act programs are not suited for regulating agricultural greenhouse gas. The costly burden of compliance could cause many farming operations to cease altogether.The Department of Agriculture’s office writes: Agricultural emissions, the result of natural biological processes, are not easily calculated or controlled. Technology does not currently exist to prevent the methane produced by enteric fermentation associated with the digestive process in cows and the cultivation of rice crops; the nitrous oxide produced from tilling soils; the carbon dioxide produced by soil; and animal agriculture respiratory processes. The only means of controlling such emissions would be through limiting production which would result in decreased food supply and radical changes in human diets.
More information on livestock and methane emission can be found in the following articles:Do Cattle Really Increase Methane In Atmosphere? http://www.cattletoday.com/archive/2008/October/CT1776.shtml
http://tinyurl.com/69qun9 Cow Tax? EPA looking into regulating greenhouse gases
Although the deadline to file comments was November 28, EPA will continue to post late comments. Public input on this issue is critical – please send your comments without delay. Full information and scope of Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions under the Clean Air Act is at http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/anpr.html
How to Comment:
Comments should be identified with the Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-0318
Please share this message widely.
Susan WolfSportsmen's and Animal Owners' Voting Alliance - http://saova.org
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Blast from the past...
This doesn't have anything (directly) to do with bird dogs, but I thought it was a pretty cool thing anyway, so here it is...
Most summers when I have traveled up to North Dakota to visit with Dr. Roger Boser and his wife Mary, we have the opportunity to see the Antique Tractor parade that travels from Flasher ND to Raleigh ND. It's an amazing collection of just about every tractor you could imagine, all painstakingly refurbished and brought back to their working glory by some local dedicated hobbyists. Today when I was surfing the net, I came across a picture of one of the tractors, and thought I would share it here... gave me some nice memories of being in ND in the summer...
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