Heavy hand of CFIA

[Sawbones]

A Macroie SK rancher was served notice in early Sept by the CFIA of Notice of Violation of Section 176 of the Health of Animals Act under the Monetary Penalties Act
This was as a result of 7 cows out of and allotment of 29 that had did not have their RFID tags when they arrived at a community pasture in May. The rancher drove 100 miles to retreive tags and place them in the animals ears before they were turned out that day. Despite his efforts, he faces the probability of a $500 fine. He will be contesting this action by the CFIA. What do you think??

[grassfarmer]

Rules are rules - if he set out with that proportion untagged he was blatantly disregarding the rules and I have no sympathy. Is the suggested fine disproportionate? I don't know because what is its purpose - to punish him or to send a message to others to ensure compliance? If we want to have a traceability system we need to have compliance. I am not a fan of the CFIA but in this case I think for once they are doing their job.

[vagabonddreamer]

i dunno GF...as long as the rule has been enforced evenly and with apportion in all cases with all people at all times then i agree...we are finding here in BC however...that these types of meted punishments are disproportionately applied in different manners by different C&A personnel...and it seems to be all of a sudden increasing as government employees try and justify their jobs...if this was a very "loosely" enforced mandate in the past...then i DONT think it justified...if the rule is there...enforce it...if you arent going to enforce it...get rid of it...vs

[ProFarmer]

It was the CFIA stupidity that got us in this mess. They were the agency that allowed the infected cattle to be put into animal feed. They caused the problem and they should be paying the costs. Yes the farmer should have the tags in but it should be the CFIA that should be on their knees saying sorry to us.....

[Kathy]

CFIA flexing their powers over us minions, coincides with our Alberta Agriculture/Gov. doing the same thing.

I see that our AB government is starting to send a message to us slaves (via ads in magazines and papers) to get our Premise ID for our farms. This is an example of a law they put on the books at the beginning of 2009, but haven't enforced yet (to my knowledge).

The whole legislation that attempts to force the rancher to comply with Premise ID is ILLEGAL in my opinion.

Premise ID is, by its very nature, a license to raise farm animals (a species list of 28 creatures). The Alberta government cannot "license us" without going through the appropriate steps in the legislature, and they haven't done this.

Since all government officials are telling me that Premise ID is not a license, then I should not have to be responsible for obtaining a number (free or as a result of a bribe)....

This global identification number for land is here for two reasons: to identify whose animals have been where, and to shut down animal production in an efficient manner.

A friends brother in Wisconcin has a large dairy farm. He bought 41 cows from another farm two years ago. A federal vet came to him the other day, quarantined his operation and told him they will be destroying the 41 cows because presently, the other premise has TB in his cattle. My friends brother was informed that depending on the outcome of initial tests, all his dairy cattle will have to be destroyed - ALL 3,200 head.

The mass destruction of animals that are not necessarily sick - merely exposed to an agent - is what pissed Mark Purdey off the most.

This is how our new law here in Alberta is written: in the past you actually had to have diseased animals; today ... your animals don't have to be sick at all, they need only be exposed to an agent of disease.

This method of disease control will allow for the government to put massive numbers of ranchers/dairies etc out of business with only one farm experiencing diseased animals. Exposure is now enough to shut you down, possibly forever.

As this is a provincial law (premise ID), it doesn't hold water because it discriminates against Alberta ranchers. Having the tags in the ears is a Federal law which all Canadians must abide by. The Premise ID "regulation" cannot be imposed on us, until it is imposed on ALL Canadians. I hope that everyone that doesn't have their Premise ID yet, tells the government to stick it where the sun don't shine.

[parsley]

Counting cows by satellite sounds hokey? I posted Satellite Imagery in Commodity Marketing you might be interested to comment on, Kathy. Pars

[Sawbones]

At first blush GF, this does look as a blatant case on not tagging but if you get the entire picture, this producer has 120 pairs or 240 head of which these were the only 7 that did not have a tag or less than 3% of his herd. In my experience, I would suggest that a 97% retention is average. As you pointed out, rules are rules and as vagabond dreamer indicated, there is a discrepancy in application so actually any animal found without a tag would put you in violation. This was a move to a community pasture but could easily have been a move to your private pasture.
CFIA did not allow for BSE testing as there was no proof that it would open markets. Where's the proof that mandatory RFID tags will increase market access. As Sean has pointed out previously, he was compensated for age verification prior to implementation of mandatory rules. Where's the proof that this will increase the bottom line for producers who are required now by law to tag these animals. CCIA tags have been labelled Cull Cows In Auction because of their poor retention rate and many producers only put them in their cows when they're heading to market.

[grassfarmer]

Thanks for the additional info - it maybe alters things, maybe doesn't. You say there were 7/29 untagged then 7/120 and that would make a difference in my mind as I'm sure the CFIA and Government will have a % retention figure in mind even if they don't state it publicly. I would not expect them to prosecute at above 95% retention at the moment but that's just a guess. But how did you come by the first figure 7/29? - did he just happen to take all his untagged cows on this one load to one location or did he know they were untagged and take them there for a reason? We don't load any animals out now without checking tags - it's just another step like filling in a manifest.

Whether CFIA did or didn't allow BSE testing is besides the issue here. Neither is it an issue whether tags add value to the cattle. It is a national identification program to track animals and one of the reasons is to keep up with the many other countries in the world that do the same. I expect in time once the tracking system becomes more developed and this tag loss issue comes up again - as it will, there will be a move to double tagging as they do in Europe - one in each ear so the chances of losing identities are halved.

[Sawbones]

gf..the original numbers were 7 cows out of 29 cows. He actually runs 120 cows in total or with calves, 240 were tagged. Some are pastured at home or other pastures. He was one of the first ranchers in SK to have the Qualified Assurance Program certification.

[Reitnorf]

Shortly after RFID tag rules were put in place I forgot to tag 3 open hiefers I used to fill up a load of calves. I was promptly fined the 500$, even though at the time they had a sense of humour and let other producers off with a warning. I refused to pay the fine and asked for a day in court as I felt I had been unfairly treated at the time. I recieved no further threatning letters and assumed they had backed off. Awhile later I was applying for a loan and found out a judgement had been placed against me destroying a already stressed credit rating. Put your tags in, listen to big brother, resistance is futile.

[kato]

I can see them jumping all over someone who is selling cattle without tags, but in the case of catching up to them at a community pasture, a warning would be a better way to do it. It's not like the cattle were changing hands, and if that community pasture is like the one we use, the cows would have been caught at unload and tagged there. Ours all need three pieces of ID at the pasture, and the CCIA tag is one of them.

They'd be better off at the auction mart, where untagged cattle are a more serious matter. Poor use of resources, in my opinion.

[skip]

I was wondering if they are following a zero tolerance approach on this....
to be perfect will be expensive.


This is going to add costs to Canadian production compared to the US where they don't have this systems

[coppertop]

I attended a roundtable meeting with
Federal Ag Minister Gerry Ritz this
morning. He was advised about the heavy
handed ear tag police at the CFIA and he
said they have no budget to do that, they
answer to him and he is contacting them
next week to tell them to cease the
practice.

[kato]

Ohh... ya gotta love those election scares! LOL

[coppertop]

Whether or not producers on this site agree
with ABP and how well they represent the
cow/calf sector, ABP was front and centre
at the meeting with Ritz and represented
the interest of the Alberta Cow/Calf
producer very well. Several cow/calf
producers spoke as did feedlot operators
and zone delegates from ABP. As a producer
I was pleased with the issues they brought
forth.