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Fundamental to controlling any animal disease threat is to have a system that can identify individual animals or groups, the premises where they are located, and the date of entry to those premises. Proponents believe an identification system will help secure the health of the national herd and provide the infrastructure to improve disease eradication and control. Opposition to the plan is minimal, but some say the plan should be voluntary. The cost to implement a mandatory plan could be prohibitive for many producers and the need for record keeping will increase. There also are legal questions including individuals’ privacy and increased producer liability.

• Clermont County, We Like It Wild Council Some members thought it was much too costly and unnecessary, while driving the smaller livestock producers out of business. Other members felt that while this may be true, it looks as if the handwriting is already on the wall and unavoidable, so get ready for it. Some felt this would make USA meat more acceptable to countries that banned it when they heard of the mad cow in America.

• Perry County, Over The Hill Gang: While most of our council agrees with the concept of animal identification they feel (based upon everything they have read so far) that this will end up being just another scam to extract dollars from producers.

• Wyandot County, Pie-An-Ears Council: We feel this program will just raise the cost of the product. Why all these restrictions? You have to consume brain or spinal tissue (to be exposed to BSE) – just need more care in slaughter process. This plan is overkill for this problem, which is further exacerbated by biased and incomplete media coverage.

• Lorain County, Mixed Nuts Council: We believe livestock identification should be mandatory. We think the very reason to do it is to ease the minds of the consumers. This plan is the forerunner, we all believe, to a country of origin plan that is necessary.

• Pike County, Smith Hill Advisory Council: We feel that the plan should be mandatory because if it isn’t it defeats the purpose. It will protect consumers as well as the animals.

• Crawford County, Cultivators Council: We are overwhelmed at the thought of identifying all livestock including importing and exporting numbers and feel it is not feasible to attempt such a project. We also doubt that consumers would even be aware of the effort being made to have animals identified.

• Defiance County, Fertile Soils Council: We think this plan is a public relations idea. There are so many ways that it could be messed up. Some farmers use different numbers, and people could be wrongly accused.

• Trumbull County, Bee See Council: We believe that government starts too many programs to correct a problem rather than doing one right. Our group feels that if the government spent efforts to control the meat inspection at slaughter houses and products given in animal feed, we would not need identification system.

• Wayne County, Country Squires: Members feel that if and when a national identification program is instated that it should be mandatory for all animal owners, even foreign animals coming into the country. The ability to quickly identify the source of an infection or disease should help put the public’s concern to ease. But the question was raised, does the general public really care about quality? If they are concerned, are they concerned enough to come up with money to pay to monitor and manage such a program? We realize something needs to be done, but are we opening a Pandora’s box?