Question about Canadian Livestock Registry Corp.

I'm opposed to the American NAIS (National Animal Identification System) and the concept of a 'National Herd'. I think it's supposed purpose for disease outbreak tracking and emlination, as well as the guise of being for the small timer backyarder is bogus and utter crap.

I want to raise heritage animals, like heritage goats and pigs and chickens and so on, and in order to help 'preserve' the breeds and keep their numbers a bit more accurate for Rare Breeds Canada, I wouldn't mind registering. I, however, have my concerns that the CLRC is just Canada's version of NAIS.

I have no interest in them showing up to kill my animals because they know where I live, what I have and so on for some bullspit suppos-ed outbreak or, like in some states, because they suddenly decide you can only have white pigs.

In your experience and opinion, is CLRC just the Canadian NAIS? Do you feel your farm is compromised in its solidarity by registering your animals? Do you feel that you, along with your animals, are now on some sort of registry?

Please do NOT defend NAIS in this thread if you are for the program (which has now been relaunched under some new name I can't think of). If you're for the national herd program, I don't care, and I don't want to get into the flinging of poo because the concept riles me so much. BUT, your opinion on whether or not CLRC and NAIS are one in the same is appreciated, along with your reasons as to why you think they are or aren't.

Thanks so much.

Great question, can't wait to see what people think...I have had similar questions regarding the Ossabaw pigs and wondering if it's worthwhile trying to get them registered or not...so I'm tagging along to see the discussion!

I have no clue about NAIS or anything related to that, but having dealt with the CLRC when I had Canadian Horses, and having dealt with other horse breed registries, I'd say the CLRC is a bit of a joke. Pretty slack. I wouldn't be concerned with them showing up at your door, since I'm not sure they'd be able to find their own rear end with both hands.

I find the notion of registering animals based on colour (Palomino) or creating a registry for non-purebred horses (Canadian Sport Horse) to be laughable at best.

authenticfarm wrote:I find the notion of registering animals based on colour (Palomino) or creating a registry for non-purebred horses (Canadian Sport Horse) to be laughable at best.

That right there is what alerted me and sent my conspiracy theorist head spinning. I'm a bit of a whack job, I'll admit, but NAIS is a well documented sham of a program that would just allow the government to claim imminent danger and go farm to backyard farm killing everything in sight, not to mention charging ridiculous amounts for mandatory registry, microchipping animals in the most dangerous places (killed hundreds, maybe thousands of horses before it was ever officially implemented when vets, often without authorization, chipped animals while claiming they were giving them coggins vaccines). It's a mass slaughter list, I believe that with all my psychotic heart.

I'm fine with running a registry that would track the development of a new breed, or where a person can find quality cross breed animals they can follow and trace a lineage for, but it's pretty suspicious to me only because of what I know about the American program and because I don't trust any government to give ALL the information and reasons behind registry's. That'd be dumb of them and even more stupid of me.

Thanks for your opinion Authentic, hope to hear more from others.

Do they require your farm/acreage to be registered or just like.. a mailing address? must all animals be tagged/microchipped or can they be branded or, as is the case of pigs, have the ear punches done?

I would look into the specific breed you want to register. The clrc is usually affiliated with a breed club and they are just the paper pushers. I know Canadian warmblood are registered through them. They want DNA samples but microchips are not mandatory.

My thoughts are its just a paper trail for people that want " registered" animals that don't host their own registry.

DNA Samples? Is the gene pool thin or...? And is that specific to that breed, not every animal?

Most horse breed associations are DNA typing now. It prevents people from registering animals with the incorrect pedigree. Not so sure about other animals though.

The only registries I am familiar with are the CKC (Canadian kennel Club) and the ARBA (American Rabbit Breeder's Association) so please humor me and allow me to talk about them.

The CKC is mainly concerned with the pedigrees and registrations of purebred dogs. That's it. Solely a registering body. Yes, they do other things, but generally will not go to bat for its members. Recently they have fallen on hard times financially. Raising fees and making poor decisions have driven people away from CKC events. People have been avoiding all CKC connections and CKC is hurting.

The ARBA is similar but seems to be a much better run association.

It occurs to me that some of the bad press registries get has a lot to do with a vocal minority.

The CLRC exists because of the Animal Pedigree Act.
And that is for purebred animals. You can't sell an animal as purebred if you can't register it (eligible to be registered) and to register it you need to do so with whomever has been given the authorization as the national association to hold the registry.

It is an offense under the animal pedigree act to do otherwise.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

No person shall.

(h) offer to sell, contract to sell or sell, as a purebred of a breed, any animal that is not registered or eligible to be registered as a purebred by the association authorized to register animals of that breed or by the Corporation;

For lots of livestock associations, the CLRC (the corporation) is what gets used as the registry.
For example, you won't find Jerseys on the CLRC because the registry is with the Canadian Jersey Association (Jersey Canada). But they still adhere to the Pedigree Act.


Anyway, I used to have goats, all registered. I love the idea of tracking who is who in a single database of information and using things like genetic coefficient programs to determine a good breeding match ups, but I don't have an opinion really about the execution of services from the CLRC.

The CLRC never showed up on my doorstep, in fact I had to poke a number of times just to get something from them  

Hopefully that makes some sense to what you were asking.

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Thanks Tara.

I will say, however, that the what can one small person do, or what effect can one 'boring' person have stance is totally not where I'm at. I make time to be paranoid about it because all it takes is one person. It's either one small person to be made an example of, or one small person to set an example. Just my opinion.

I must be in a minority. I don't look at an unregistered animal as less than anything, or something that has been cared for any less. None of my animals are registered and I take good care of them and love them all dearly. They aren't any less valuable to me, any less worth it.

It sounds like there's no required land registry along with the animals? From the forms I was looking at, they just ask for a mailing address.