The dirty business of shipping untagged cattle

I had a long and sometimes emotional conversation yesterday with Saskatchewan rancher Ken Habermehl. He recently was cleared of any wrong doing in a hearing regarding the shipment of cattle to a community pasture in May 2009, where it was found upon arrival that seven animals did not have CFIA approved RFID ear tags. (Read more about it in the October 18, 2010 issue of Grainews.)

Habermehl maintains he checked all 200-plus head at his farm south of Outlook before about 10 trailer loads of animals were hauled 67 kms to pasture. And when the CFIA inspector – the Button Cop - found seven animals with no tags Habermehl did everything possible to re-tag those animals. He still ended up with a charge of failing to tag cattle and a potential $500 fine.

It took nearly a year and a half of legwork that culminated in a one-day hearing in June, and then three more months of waiting for a ruling by the tribunal in late September that quashed the charge and fine.

Habermehl and his witnesses, and apparently many other beef producers, maintain the approved RFID tags don’t stay in – they have a poor retention rate -- and livestock owners who do their best to make sure these permanent tags are properly installed in the ear, shouldn’t be penalized if they fall out either through normal animal activity, or in the congestion of transit.

The whole point of this national cattle identification system, as I understand it, is to make it possible to trace cattle through the beef production system so if we do have another Mad Cow (or something else) that threatens world health and security, it can be tracked back to the farm or origin so the remainder of the plagued animals can be quarantined or destroyed. And as we have learned with all the crap that has happened since May 2003, that is a good thing.

Now, life is full of shysters and if there was some evidence the Ken Habermehls or the Cargills or the XL Meats of the world are working to screw the system by shipping illicit untagged cattle or meat either to make a point, or because they are too lazy to do a proper job, then yes, throw the book at them.

At the same time, if you have a hard working stiff who is doing his best and the technology he is “required” to use fails him, why should his hide be nailed to the wall? In this case there were seven head in a holding pen found with no tags, and Habermehl apparently used all his resources to correct the problem as quickly as possible. Even the tribunal report used the term “no harm, no foul”. It is not like we were facing the imminent risk that if these seven cows hadn’t been tagged, that every consumer of Canadian meat in Japan would, three weeks from now, go crazy and croak.

And I can’t even criticize the Button Cop. Probably, just doing his job. There was no point in him putting his ass on the line for an agitated, yet-compliant, rancher, because ultimately turning a blind eye could have landed him unemployed and Habermehl still facing charges. I learned a long time ago, the law distinguishes between what is legal and illegal, it doesn’t determine between right and wrong. But, there is always hope that in the broad administration of justice, that lawmakers will one day find the perfect clause to allow rational thinking people to apply common sense without penalty.

Lee Hart is editor of Cattleman’s Corner based in Calgary. Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com

-30-