McKinley doesn't want the Fair using kids to push the USDA's National Animal Identification System on the state.

McKinley, along with a handful of children and their parents, descended on the Capitol as the board considered rule-making changes that could require anyone who brings an animal into the State Fairgrounds in Pueblo to register the premises where their beasts were raised with the voluntary NAIS, which the USDA says is designed to track diseased animals.

"What you are seeing here is an illegal act," McKinley said, pointing to a number of goats that Southeastern Colorado children and others from throughout the state brought onto the Capitol grnds.

"When that premise ID program gets fully implemented, it will be illegal to bring animals onto the Capitol lawns without having this place registered with the federal government as a legal place for animals to be," McKinley said. The legislator and several dozen children, who are members of 4-H and Future Farmers of America, urged the Fair board to hold a public hearing later this month on the issue.

The majority of the group addressed the Fair board Wednesday morning at its monthly meeting at the state Department of Agriculture in Lakewood.

The panel is reviewing several rule changes, including a requirement that 4-H and FFA members who are showing livestock register their premises with the NAIS in order to participate in this year's Fair.

That NAIS program is voluntary, but became controversial last year when the Colorado State Fair disqualified two exhibitors because their animal premises had not been registered.

Officials with the State Fair and Colorado Departmetof Agriculture say the program is necessary in the event of an animal disease outbreak. If that occurs, the ID program is designed to quickly trace an animal's movement to see if other animals have been infected.

The Fair board had voted earlier this year to continue the requirement at the 2008 Fair, but only for 4-H and FFA exhibitors.

Under the advice of their state attorney, Fair commissioners decided Wednesday to open up the issue to a public hearing on May 30 at the Fairgrounds.

McKinley had tried to get the Colorado Legislature to adopt a bill prohibiting the Fair board from requiring the premise registration, but it died in a House committee.

Kimmi Lewis of Kim, who brought several of the children to the Capitol, said the Fair board is picking on the kids in an attempt to force adult ranchers to register with the NAIS, too.

Lewis, a chief organizer of a group called the Colorado Coalition Opposing 4-H/FF Pemises Requirement, said many adults don't like the program for several reasons, not the least of which is they don't trust the federal government to use it only to track diseased animals.

"We believe in the county fairs, we believe in the state Fair, but we do not believe in this mandate," Lewis said. "They're using our children. It's unreal. Illinois just had a huge outcry over this, and the Illinois Department of Ag dropped it. Colorado is the only state that's pushing this."

Copyright 2008, The Pueblo Chieftain.
http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2008/05/01/news/local/doc481957971ae3f061576674.txt





April 30, 2008 State Fair regulation gets exhibitors' goals - Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com

Karijaka VanPoollen, 12, of Bailey and her pygmy goat Mocha joined protesters at the Capitol on Wednesday. (Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post )

Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, and children involved in 4-H and FFA gathered Wednesday outside the Capitol to protest Colorado State Fair board rules that require kids exhibiting animals at the fair this year to register them with a "premise ID" number.

Fair officials have said the system is needed to minimize the risk of disease transmission.
McKinley said young exhibitors have to fill out burdensome paperwork that is often invasive. He said the rule is the first step toward requiring that electronic chips be implanted to track animal movements.

"Would you like to have a chip implanted in you?" he asked. "This is an issue of invasion of privacy and our property rights."

Copyright 2008, The Denver Post.
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_9113513