Because I find it increasingly difficult to sleep at night and still find it important to educate the membership and it appears a number of you do not sign in to the members only area:
Dear Fellow Producer:
To provide you with an update, Tom and I filed suit with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) last fall for compensation for the animals at our breed facility. Following complete depopulation of our animals at our hunting preserve at our expense, IDALS dropped the quarantine, we completed clean-up and canceled our hunting preserve license. Upon opening the gates, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources served an Emergency Order requiring that we close the gates and reinstall electric fence around the 330 acre property, along with quarantine orders through December 28, 2017. IDALS requested that their portion of the suit be consolidated and continued with the IDNR suit in November. In their motion to consolidate and continue IDALS report:
"Both cases will involve a constitutional takings analysis, and that analysis will involve some level of discussion
of the science and rational behind IDALS' and DNR's Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) quarantine policies and the
USDA's Program Standards for CWD exposed herds or property."
As of today, July 23, 2013, the judge ruled to deny IDALS's motion to continue and consolidate, therefore, full merits will be herd for the quarantine of the breed facility animals in August. The IDNR merits for the 330 acre hunting preserve property is scheduled for November.
Again, our hunting preserve property is valued at approximately $1.5 million, and now quarantined until December 28, 2017. Our breed herd of 500+ animals appraised at approximately 1.5 million and costing roughly $3,000 per week to feed and our breed facility land valued at a minimum of $245,000, also quarantined for five years minimum. We have spent more than $160,000 in attorney fees fighting for our property rights and due compensation. Following our 10 year certification for CWD monitoring we dropped out of the CWD program, neither the breed facility nor the hunting preserve were part of the monitoring program nor have we signed any agreement with the State of Iowa or USDA for quarantine and yet we are effected by CWD exposure through the CWD Rule and Standards.
Unfortunately, there are still a number of producers whom simply do not understand the imploding impacts from the CWD Standards for every producer. The Standards are not only impacting our case here in Iowa, they will impact each of you no matter which state you or your herd and property reside. As in our case, common ownership will override any and all justifications for quarantine, regardless if you do or do not participate in the "voluntary" CWD program.
While I understand, we may get $3 million put back into the USDA CWD program, of that $3 million a minimum of $1.1 million will be allocated for salaries, and the remaining 1.9 million toward research and compensation. How far is this really going to get Tom and I or the next producer exposed to CWD?
A question we often hear, "What can I do?" Our response: Become a united industry in the movement against government overreach by the policy makers. We ask that you think about what you have invested in your operation(s) and then think about what you are willing to risk if or when your herd or property is exposed to CWD. If these Standards are something you can live with should you become exposed to CWD, then you have made a conscious choice to support the Standards document.
However, if you chose to become united for science-based disease management, property rights and due compensation; then we ask that you get involved and work to make changes and stop putting we producers out of business and stop taking our property without due compensation. A "voluntary" program made "involuntary" through our ability for movement or commerce without compensation, is unjust and needs to be changed. The Standards Document is due for public comment any day. Please take the first step, keep your antenna up, and submit your comments.
God Bless and thank you for your continued support!
Best Regards,
Tom and Rhonda Brakke
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As reported by USDA it appears I may have underestimated the program salaries and "activities" in my above letter:
In FY2012 approximately $1.925 million of ECSR funding was allocated for CWD program activities to provide Federal oversight of the national CWD herd certification program (HCP).
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I removed the producers name and buck from this horrible aritlce:
July 11, 2013
_______ (Buck), the _________ Ranch's prized buck, is a semen-producing cash cow.
In magazine advertisements in which ____ (Buck) is backlit in messianic grandeur, his value can be determined in other ways. ______ (Producer) sells half-cubic-centimeter straws of the animal's cryogenically frozen semen (or about a tenth of a teaspoon) for $5,000 a pop. And breeders will pony up just for a shot at a fawn boasting the great _____ (Buck) as sire. Bear in mind, a buck in his prime with an electroejaculator inserted in his rectum can produce 60 straws at a time.
Though ______ (Buck) never leaves the confines of _______ Ranch, FedEx spreads his cryogenically frozen seed far and wide.
From Standards Vs. 22 Document:
(2.6) Additions of Animals or Genetic Material (Germplasm) to a Herd: Effects on Status
A herd may add animals from herds with the same or a greater status in the national CWD HCP with no negative impact on the status of the receiving herd. If animals are acquired from a herd with a lesser status, the receiving herd reverts to the status of that source herd. If a herd participating in the program acquires animals from a nonparticipating herd, the receiving herd reverts to First Year status with a new status date listed as the date of acquisition of the animal. The enrollment date in the national CWD HCP would remain unchanged but the herd status level would be modified (and modification date recorded). If a herd acquires animals from herds with a lower or nonparticipating status, the owner must notify a Federal or State official within 5 business days of such acquisition.
At this time there is no scientific evidence that germplasm (embryos or semen) may transmit CWD. . If scientific evidence of the role of embryos or semen in the transmission of CWD should become available, this guidance will be changed.
We tried to remove this section from the Standards document, but failed.
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A report from USAHA which I attended in N.C. last fall and I helped to draft the below amendment. This is all Tom and I were requesting for our investments and property, but we were served Part B of the Standards because it was reported by some industry leaders that the Standards Document really wasn't that bad.
RESOLUTION NUMBER: 20– APPROVED
SOURCE: Committee on Captive Wildlife and Alternative Livestock
SUBJECT MATTER: Chronic Wasting Disease Control
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
It has been stated by the United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Veterinary Services that
(1) the goal of the Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) program in the United States has now changed from eradication to controlling its spread,
(2) there is no longer federal funding available to pay for CWD testing or to pay indemnity for CWD infected or exposed animals, and
(3) depopulation of infected herds will no longer be required or expected.
With this major change in objectives, it is critical that we change the way we implement the CWD program in the United States. We now need a program that minimizes the risk of spreading CWD in farmed and wild cervidae without putting farmed cervidae producers out of business if their herds become CWD infected or exposed. We need a CWD control program that includes plans for how to (1) handle infected or exposed herds, (2) clean up infected herds without depopulation, and (3) provide outlets so producers can continue to sell velvet antler and live animals to slaughter or specified terminal facilities.
We had a 7 hour deposition yesterday in Des Moines and returning again today and tomorrow. Even though the Standards document has not been approved or put to public comment period or even implemented, it was a discussed in great deal yesterday.
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We have been put out of business, smeared in the newspapers across the state and the country to the unsuspecting public leading them to believe that our positive case of CWD is going to destroy the entire deer population in Iowa, infect cattle, infect the surrounding hay and harvest ground outside of our Davis County property and people, including a USAHA release with an Iowa Representative call us irresponsible, there is no way to undo the damage that we have been served.
