NoNAIS.org

In an important victory for our basic rights a judge has ruled for an Amish farmer against the state of Wisconson regarding Premise ID, a fundimental cornerstone of the government’s plan for the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

Clark Co. Judge Rules in Favor of Amish in Premises ID Case
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 03/10/2010

A decision has finally been made in the highly anticipated case in which the State of Wisconsin was trying to sue an Amish man for not following Wisconsin’s Livestock Premise Registration law. On Tuesday, Clark County Circuit Court Judge Jon Counsell ruled that Emanuel Miller Jr. of Loyal does have a ‘religious right’ to be exempt from the law, which requires anyone who keeps, houses, or co-mingles livestock to register their premises with the state.
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Meanwhile, an official with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture’s animal health division says he expects the state to appeal the ruling.

The case at one time was referred to as the state’s first such prosecution, until a Polk County judge ruled in October that Patrick Monchilovich of Cumberland violated the four-year-old rule after he refused to register his premises. He was ordered to pay a $200 civil forfeiture and about $190 in court costs.
-WisonsinAgConnection

The state had the goal of persecuting farmers. Not prosecuting criminals but persecuting farmers. Thankfully one judge has put a stop to this nonsense. The USDA has said there will be no mandatory NAIS. Let’s see that reflected at the state level. It is time to cut government funding to the bone since they can’t seem to do anything better than attack citizens. No funds, no agents, no new regulations. When it comes to voting time, create deadlocks.

In a startling little sideline the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) has demonstrated why a mandatory tracking system is not necessary for disease detectives. Likewise this demonstrates how the USDA’s proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is also not necessary.

As they scrambled recently to trace the source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds around the country, investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention successfully used a new tool for the first time - the shopper cards that millions of Americans swipe every time they buy groceries.

With permission from the patients, investigators followed the trail of grocery purchases to a Rhode Island company that makes salami, then zeroed in on the pepper used to season the meat.

Never before had the CDC successfully mined the mountain of data that supermarket chains compile. “It was really exciting. It was a break in the investigation for sure,” CDC epidemiologist Casey Barton Behravesh said. At least 245 people in 44 states have been sickened in the outbreak. That includes 30 in California, 19 in Illinois, 18 in New York and 17 in Washington state.
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So the CDC asked supermarkets for certain buying information on seven victims in Washington state, focusing on suspect products rather than everything the customers had bought, Behravesh said. “We didn’t care about the brand of toilet paper people were buying,” she said.

Of those seven people, five had bought Italian meats made by the Rhode Island company, Danielle International Inc., Behravesh said. Further investigation - including the use of data from other victims’ shopper cards - pointed to salami made by Danielle and, more specifically, the imported pepper it was coated in. That came from two spice suppliers in New York and New Jersey. All three companies have since recalled some products.

The CDC would not say how many patients gave access to their accounts or were asked to do so, but Behravesh said most agreed. “Most of the time when a person gets really sick with a food-borne pathogen, they’re very happy to talk with us and try to help out with the investigation,” she said.
-APNews

The fact that the CDC was able to so quickly and successfully use the voluntary consumer shopping cards of just the consumers who agreed to release their own data to track down the salmonella contaminated pepper is proof that we do not need mandatory tracking systems. People should have the fundamental freedom to opt-in or opt-out of any of these sorts of programs at their discretion. Their data should only be used with their permission.

Washington – In a landmark RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) lawsuit certain to have far-reaching implications for the animal rights movement, Feld Entertainment and the Ringling Brothers circus sued the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), its lawyers, and several other animal rights groups last week. The nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) unearthed the lawsuit in federal court records today. CCF is making the lawsuit available online at its newest website, www.HumaneWatch.org.

“America’s farmers, ranchers, hunters, fishermen, research scientists, fashion designers, and restaurateurs have seen for decades how the animal rights movement can behave like a mobbed-up racket,” said CCF Director of Research David Martosko. “But it’s still shocking to see the evidence laid out on paper. In a treble-damage lawsuit like this, a jury could actually do the humane thing and finally put HSUS out of business completely.”

In its February 16 lawsuit, Feld leveled bribery, fraud, obstruction of justice, and money laundering charges against HSUS and two of its corporate attorneys; three other animal rights groups; the Washington, DC law firm of Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal; and all three of that firm’s named partners.

On December 30, 2009, Federal Judge Emmitt Sullivan ruled that these defendants collaborated to pay more than $190,000 to Mr. Tom Rider, a former Feld employee who was an elephant “barn helper” for two years in the late 1990s, in exchange for his impeached testimony against Feld in an earlier lawsuit—testimony Judge Sullivan declared “not credible” and disregarded in its entirety. That lawsuit was dismissed.

Feld is also suing Mr. Rider, and a nonprofit “Wildlife Advocacy Project” charity, claiming that Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal used it to funnel money from their plaintiff clients to Mr. Rider. These clients included the Fund for Animals, which merged with HSUS in 2004.

“The new HumaneWatch website is the only place the public will be able to read this lawsuit,” Martosko added. “We’re publishing a treasure trove of information about the Humane Society of the United States, including lots of surprising documents that HSUS would rather remain hidden from its contributors.”

Last week CCF launched www.HumaneWatch.org, an online watchdog project dedicated to analyzing HSUS’s activities and keeping the group honest. It includes a blog, an interactive document library, and a growing body of information about HSUS-related organizations and staff.

To read this explosive federal racketeering lawsuit, visit www.HumaneWatch.org.To arrange an interview, call Allison Miller at 202-463-7112