Comments on FA-RM: Review of "Mad Sheep"

Thank you both for your comments and insightful in...

2008-12-16T21:47:00.000-07:00

Thank you both for your comments and insightful information. Jim, I'll definitely have to look up that court case. I'm not familiar with it. Thank you for providing your legislators with such an eloquent and informative statement.

The amount of deference of the courts to federal agencies as "experts" is exceedingly troubling. You are correct. This is very disruptive of the balance of power that the founders intended. What is the purpose of such a hearing if not to evaluate the objectivity of government findings? Why have a hearing at all if it simply to be accepted that a government agency can act as a dictator? I find it very disturbing that the courts could not stop the USDA actions to destroy the Faillace herd before their hearing.

The mad sheep at these rogue agencies need to be reigned in, I'd say.... :)

An incredible story!In response, I have sent the f...

2008-12-16T21:26:00.000-07:00

An incredible story!

In response, I have sent the following to my members of Congress:

"Having recently read about abuses by the USDA in the case of the Faillace family farm as documented in the book Mad Sheep, I am concerned that Congress has provided inadequate statutory rights to American citizens as protection from agency errors and simple ineffective meddlesomeness.

"This problem was exacerbated by the Supreme Court in Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. [467 U.S. 837 (1984)], which has caused the courts to give undue deference to administrative agencies.

"I expect that the protection of American citizens could be achieved by Congress through statute empowering the doctrine of substantive due process to court review of agency actions.

"Expecting administrative agencies to demonstrate that their actions actually achieve their stated purpose when applied to individual cases would go far toward these protections and the re-establishment of public confidence in our bureaucracies.

"As the courts have abdicated their responsibility to protect our rights, I ask that the Congress act in defense of our liberties against an unchecked executive power."

I used to work at an animal research laboratory, a...

2008-12-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

I used to work at an animal research laboratory, and we had to answer to a whole alphabet soup of government agencies. My experience was that the most arbitrary and obnoxious regulations (meaning they would keep you from doing your job if you followed them to the letter) were from the USDA.

Historically, the USDA has enforced the Animal Welfare Act regulations only for larger animals such as rabbits and dogs. Rats and mice, which comprise the vast majority of laboratory animals, are not included. A few years ago, some animal rights activists sued to get rodents included under the same regulations--which in my opinion was a ploy to make the research so burdensome that it couldn't get done.

Fortunately, Congress stepped in, and an explicit exclusion for rats and mice was added to the otherwise horrible 2002 farm bill. See here.