For months I have seen many emotional articles about pets being reunited with their owners thanks, say the articles, to that beautiful piece of technology called the RFID microchip. I call these kinds of articles primers because they get the public ready to accept things like requiring all dogs and cats in an area to be microchipped.
So its no mistake when those pushing mandatory microchipping legislation extol the supposed virtues of microchipping by claiming that microchips are “invaluable tools” in reuniting lost pets with their owners. Its meant to tug at your heart strings and keep you from doing research on RFID technology and discovering that microchipping is potentially unhealthy for humans and animals, and that mandatory microchipping in particular is a violation of Constitutitonal freedoms.
RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. An RFID tag is a tiny microchip no bigger than a grain of rice implanted somewhere in an animal or humans body that can hold information, like addresses and phone numbers, as well as relay information, like yours or your dog’s whereabouts, to anyone with a scanner (and there are low-range readers and long-range readers).
Weve seen ordinances requiring so-called dangerous breeds to be microchipped, and weve seen dangerous dog ordinances that require dogs deemed dangerous to be microchipped, ostensibly so authorities, and anyone else with a scanner, can know where these dogs, and quite possibly their owners, are at all times.
And in usual stepping-stone fashion, from pets it has gone to agricultural livestock with an attempt to require RFID chipping of dairy herds, etc., under the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). NAIS failed, so the Department of Agriculture has since repackaged NAIS and is now calling it animal traceability, but its still NAIS.
From there, RFID microchipping will go to people. It already has. A Time magazine article from 2007 noted that Human ˜tagging was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2004 to facilitate retrieval of private medical records but to no surprise the procedure has had few takers. Gee, I wonder why?
So because there have been few takers, I guess they, whoever they are, decided to forcibly microchip people against their will. As the Time article mentions, there has already been a pilot program to RFID chip residents at the Alzheimers Community Care agency in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Whats the problem with a granny LoJack, i.e. forcibly microchipping people who have Alzheimers? That it is done without their consent, of course. After all, they really cant consent can they? Forget medical proxies, there are some things a person must be able to decide for themselves and if they cant, then they should be left alone. Indeed, RFID chipping the elderly who have Alzheimers or some other kinds of dementia very well could be against their will, which means its wholly unconstitutional and a violation of the liberty we true Americans and our Constitution hold dear.
Speaking of things that are against peoples wills, the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) failed in part because it wouldve required the Amish to tag their livestock with RFID chips. The Amish, who shun technology including even electricity as part of their faith, were staunchly opposed to NAIS. When the state of Michigan could not force Amish dairy farmers to tag their cattle with RFID chips, they put the chipping program on hold and moved on to something called the premise ID law* which required all farms with animals to register with the state and acquire a farm ID number.
The Amish were opposed to mandatory RFID microchipping and the premise ID law because they believe tracking numbers and RFID tags to be the ‘Mark of the Beast’ prophesied in the Bible. In fact, in registering their opposition to Michigans premise ID law,
. . . a number of Amish producers cited specific Bible passages (Revelations chapter 13, verse 7 and chapter 19, verse 20) that refer to buying and selling of animals that are numbered and consider it the mark of the beast. And for some producers it comes down to some strongly held beliefs versus continuing with their livelihood (Source: Vernon Broadcaster*).
The Michigan Department of Agriculture knew that the Amish dairy farmers were opposed to the premise ID law based on their religious beliefs, but regardless some of the local Amish producers were given a premise ID number without their knowledge. In other words, the state of Michigan deliberately violated the Amish dairy farmers wishes and their 1st amendment freedom of religion rights.
Yet, astoundingly, Kevin Kirk, who coordinated the program for the Michigan state agriculture department, had the audacity to say,
I know its hard sometimes to trust the government, but thats what were asking is trust us (WSBT*).
I guess the Amish shouldve just forgotten that whole thing about how their state government gave their farms a premise ID against their will, without their knowledge, and in stark contrast to the freedoms guaranteed by the 1st amendment, and just held the hand that was holding them down!
And yes, I understand that this post may seem like it is full of digressions, but its really not. There is a backstory to RFID microchipping that you need to know; its not as benign as they would have you believe when they tell you its no more than a method to electronically license or identify your dog or cat or your livestock.
In fact, microchipping can literally cause malignancies (meaning harmful and deadly cancer). A few years ago, Katherine Albrecht, who co-wrote Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move, issued a press release/commentary on research that has proven microchips can cause deadly tumors:
. . . microchip implants have induced cancer in laboratory animals and dogs, says privacy expert and long-time VeriChip opponent Dr. Katherine Albrecht.
As the AP will report, a series of research articles spanning more than a decade found that mice and rats injected with glass-encapsulated RFID transponders developed malignant, fast-growing, lethal cancers in up to 1% to 10% of cases. The tumors originated in the tissue surrounding the microchips and often grew to completely surround the devices, the researchers said.
Albrecht first became aware of the microchip-cancer link when she and her Spychips co-author, Liz McIntyre, were contacted by a pet owner whose dog had died from a chip-induced tumor. Albrecht then found medical studies showing a causal link between microchip implants and cancer in other animals. Before she brought the research to the APs attention, the studies had somehow escaped public notice (Intel Daily*).
So there it is: RFID microchips can cause deadly cancer. Still I have yet to see one article about a city or county proposing a mandatory microchipping law for pets that mentions that microchips can cause malignant tumors.
For instance, when Santa Cruz County, California was considering making RFID microchipping mandatory in November 2013, resident Brenda Cruden expressed concern about the potential health effects of implanting a chip in her dog, saying,
I want to know what [microchipping is] going to do in the long term to the animal. What is the material made of? Is it stationary? . . . No vet can tell me. I havent had any satisfying answers yet.
Cruden went on to say that she was against the countys proposed mandate due to lack of information about the chips and their impacts. So not only are state and municipal governments not forthcoming about the possible harmful health effects of RFID microchipping, they may very well be keeping that information from their residents!
Indeed, for articles about cities or counties considering mandatory microchipping for pets, I have yet to read one article that mentions that RFID chips can cause malignancies. Nor have I read that for some, RFID technology may offend their religious sensibilities.
Yet city and county and even state officials keep propagandizing that RFID chipping is beneficial, just like Melanie Sobel, General Manager of the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter, did when she said that mandatory microchipping of Santa Cruz County dogs and cats was,
“a no-brainer . . . Its beneficial in every single way.”
No, microchipping is clearly not beneficial, but it looks like they don’t want you to know that. In fact, it looks like they may even be purposely keeping that information from you.
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*For links with an asterisk by them, please click here in the comments section to see excerpts from the original articles that are no longer available online.
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