Nebraska Bans NAIS! What’s Next?

Nebraska legislators did something unusual – they rose to the occasion to ban the implementation of NAIS – the National Animal Identification System.

Initially NAIS was earmarked for cattle, as a way to track them, in case of a Mad Cow outbreak. However the bill was quickly expanded to cover all livestock except pigs, and include even your dogs and cats.

That means that kennel owners and miscellaneous breeders would be subject to it. And, it means even the Amish would be subject to it.

The measure would call for tracking of these animals via computer  chips. I don’t know about you, but the whole idea of being able to control food like that just gives me the willies. If farmer brown became someone you didn’t like, or was the subject of a witch hunt (this HAS happened before you know), well, his ‘number’ could be banned and associating with farmer brown or doing business with him could be a criminal event. Even if farmer brown’s livestock was bartered, owning it could be a crime. And the chip makes it easily trackable.

Scary stuff, right?

For Nebraska, this is a big deal. Most of Nebraska’s landmass is either engaged in ranching or farming. The thought of implementing and policing this had to enrage the ranching community.

Not to mention the costs of such a program.

With Nebraska saying NO to NAIS, I can only hope our neighbors to the immediate north (South and North Dakota), west (Colorado and Wyoming), south (Kansas) and east (Iowa) will choose to follow suit and also ban it.

It makes me feel a little more secure about raising livestock on my little ranch on the prairie.  It just weirds me to out to think that every critter I own could be seen and counted from space.   Or tracked from the ground.

Just think if a robber decided to break into your home and had a device that could SCAN your home for whatever is wearing the chip. Heck, they wouldn’t have to break in to know where my dog is, or what type of dog he is.

It’ll all be on the chip!

That would signal the end to privacy as we know it. The Orwellian nightmare would have become a reality. 

Do you remember the show called The Prisoner? It  aired in the late 60’s and  starred Patrick McGoohan.  Patrick played a secret agent who was taken captive and subject to a bizarre mind game which was to break him. Every time he thought he escaped, the people who kept him captive would send a bubble to fetch him back.   It was a pretty bizarre and freaky show. On one episode, they even let him think he had escaped, let him foster hope, then crushed it.

"You can run but you can’t hide."

That show’s haunted me over the years.

When I think about how much today’s technology can be used to control and monitor us, I can’t help but feel a little paranoid and a little naked.

"Resistance Is Futile…You Will Be Assimilated…"

Makes me wish I could turn back the clock to a simpler time…when no one needed or cared to know that much about me….and I could just live and be.

Only in my dreams…