Tuesday, January 24, 2012

A Bit of a Set Back...

So there has been a bit of a set back. I attended another Animal Control Advisory Board meeting last night and a couple of issues have arisen.

1) The USDA (or was it the MDA?) is in the process of changing a regulation in Michigan that requires all livestock to have identification ear tags (and not just animals being imported into Michigan) in order to keep records on disease such as scrapie (the version of mad-cow that goats and sheep can get). In addition, entities such as the Ingham County animal shelter will be required to slaughter any un-tagged goats they pick up. Unlike un-registered dogs, which get impounded and eventually re-homed, goats will get impounded and slaughtered, with no option of re-homing. The animal shelter does not want to be responsible for "disposing" of the animals and also doesn't want to get a bad rap. Having to slaughter someone's untagged pet goat would be a public-relations nightmare! Furthermore, even if we specifically state in our goat ordinance that "ALL GOATS MUST HAVE IDENTIFYING EAR TAGS" a lot of people won't pay attention to the rules...and as a result, their animal could get needlessly slaughtered.

2) The Ingham County Animal Shelter is already under-funded and under-staffed. Allowing any new "critter" in the county will inevitably make more work for them. Regardless of how clearly spelled-out the regulations are in the goat ordinance, many people will obtain goats without ever reading the regulations.  A possible way to "pay-back" the animal shelter for having to deal with goats will be to require a licensing fee (like a dog license).

The plan is to collect more information on the USDA regulation and figure out the issues with the animal shelter and/or licensing fees. Then we will meet with the Animal Control Advisory Board again in late March (they only meet every other month). If the advisory board approves the updated resolution, then we can go to the Law Enforcement Committee to get the resolution passed (hopefully).

Monday, January 23, 2012

Another Meeting Tonight

I will be attending this month's Ingham County Animal Control Shelter Advisory Board meeting tonight. I hear that they will be discussing the goat issue quite a bit...in order to decide if the board will be in support of the proposed goat resolution at the upcoming Ingham County Law Enforcement Committee meeting next week, February 2.

Hope everything goes okay...if nothing else, I think we will be finalizing our version of the resolution (which may involve adding a few things such as the rumored ear tag requirement).

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Update

Now there's been mention of some requirement for ear-tags on all livestock in michigan, regulated by the Michigan Department of Agriculture. Hopefully this won't trip things up too much!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Let's Get This Resolution Passed!

Hi Everyone,

As you may know, I have been working with the Ingham County commission to try to get dairy goats legalized in urban areas. The process has been moving along pretty smoothly and we are close to finishing! 

I have a meeting with the Ingham County Law Enforcement Committee on Thursday February 2nd (at 6pm) to present the resolution to allow goats. I'm pretty sure that getting the law enforcement committee's approval for the resolution is the last step in the process! My contact with the county commission suggested I try to find some other pro-goat (or pro-urban agriculture) people to come and show their support at the meeting (and possibly say a few words).

If you are interested in legalizing urban dairy goats in Ingham County and improving access to fresh and unadulterated milk in the city, please consider attending the meeting and showing your support. Contact me for more information.