A livestock tracking system planned by the government will not include the age of animals, despite the key role age has played in mad cow disease investigations.
Agriculture Department officials say they don't want to overburden ranchers and can track most birth dates.
Critics said the omission could make the system worthless.
"So what's the point of having this animal ID system? This is one fact you actually really need to know when it comes to mad cow," Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union, said Monday.
Maybe I am missing something here, if so I wish somebody would point it out to me. The requirements for the NAIS is that every movement or signifigant event in an animals life and will have to be reported to the government and recorded. If you don't report the event within 24 hours a rancher would be subject to a $1000 fine per animal per day. Wouldn't an animals birth be a signifigant event that would be required to be reported and entered into the NAIS database? So even if they don't explicitly require the birth date, won't they have it in thier records?
Who are they trying to fool with this announcment? Do they think just because I am a dumb cowboy I can't see through this abvious ploy? They don't fool me. Just trying to quite the opposition. It won't work.
A fool too late bewares when all the peril is past. Elizabeth I
