House of Representatives

HB 2363

livestock inspections

Sponsors: Representatives Gleason, Flake, Chase, et al

DP	Committee on Natural Resources and Agriculture
DP	Caucus and COW
DP	Third Read
DP	As Passed the House
X	As Transmitted to the Governor

Permits the Director of the Department of Agriculture (Director) to adopt a mandatory self-inspection program for livestock.

History

The states’ interest in livestock inspections began in 1887 when the Livestock Sanitary Commission (later the State Livestock Board) was established in the Arizona Territory. The State Livestock Board was responsible for livestock regulation through 1990. Livestock inspections are now a subprogram of the Arizona Department of Agriculture’s Animal Disease, Ownership and Welfare Protection Program. The Livestock Inspection Subprogram protects owners of livestock against theft, and livestock from abuse, by regulating all facets of livestock ownership and movement and maintaining documentation of livestock activity.

According to the June 2000 Auditor General Performance Audit a typical inspection costs the Department $14.00 but the Department recovers only $3.75 or less in fees. The study also indicated that Arizona law requires the Department to conduct thousands of inspections that are potentially duplicative. In FY 1999, 180,000 cattle were unnecessarily inspected. The Auditor General recommended improving the livestock inspection process.

The Arizona Department of Agriculture currently has a Livestock Self-inspection program. According to Department Rule, R3-2-702, any owner or operator of a ranching operation producing at least five cattle or 10 sheep, an inventoried dairy operation using at least five dairy cattle, or an inventoried feedlot operation moving at least five cattle per year to a state or federally inspected slaughter establishment or to a recognized Arizona livestock auction, may apply for a self-inspection certificate book or cab card, or both, to move livestock.

Provisions

· Allows the Director to establish a mandatory self-inspection program that permits the private treaty sale of self-inspected livestock.

· Authorizes the Associate Director of the Arizona Department of Agriculture to examine livestock inventory records that verify the origin, shipment or sale of livestock.

· Excludes dairy calves under thirty days of age from the requirement to have a bill of sale.

· Clarifies that all owners of equine must obtain an ownership and hauling certificate as prescribed by ARS Section 3-1344.

· Includes exhibition livestock in the self-inspection program.

· Requires a report to the Legislature from the Department of Agriculture by December 1, 2003 that analyzes the effect of the mandatory livestock self-inspection program on animal health, ownership and theft prevention, enforcement and field implementation.

· Makes the provisions of this bill effective from the summer of 2002 until July 1, 2004. After this date the livestock inspection program will return to what is now in statute. This is done through a dual enactment of statutes and a delayed effective date.

· Makes technical and conforming changes.

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45th Legislature

Second Regular Session 2 May 29, 2002

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