Day: April 17, 2011

Gov. McDonnell signed a law that defines proper care for agricultural animals and outlines the procedure for seizing abused or neglected animals. The bill, which will go into effect in July, provides an alternative to filing animal cruelty charges. Having an alternative allows authorities to intervene sooner, said Virginia Farm Bureau spokeswoman Martha Moore. “The animal would have to be almost dead,” under the animal cruelty law, Moore said. “It’s more to give the law enforcement the ability to intervene … quicker.” The law also spells out that farm animals must have access to adequate food, water

In last Sunday’s Kansas City Star an article by John Milburn from the Associated Press talked about Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signing a new law to create Rural Opportunity Zones in counties that have faced large population declines in the past decade. The point of the law is to lure new families to rural Kansas on the promise of no income taxes for five years. These counties are in need of resident, jobs, and even veterinarians, though it can be difficult to recruit veterinarians to these areas. Mike Whitehair, DVM, Abilene Animal Hospital, Abilene, Kan., has served as an

SAN ANTONIO (DTN) — USDA’s final outline of its animal disease traceability program could be rolled out as early as this month, its project manager told animal health experts at a conference on Wednesday. “Our target has been to publish in April so it is going through the clearance process. That takes time. It’s on its way. A specific date is hard to say but it should be published here this spring,” Neil Hammerschmidt said of the National Animal Identification System’s replacement program. USDA has been working on an animal identification system since the 1990s. The concept