Sale barns not subject to additional regulations

PIERRE, S.D. (AP)--Livestock sale barns east of the Missouri River should not be subject to additional record-keeping regulations, legislators decided Jan. 17.

The House Agriculture and Natural Resources voted 12-1 to kill HB1004, which would have required East River sale barns to keep copies of inspection certificates authorizing livestock to leave the inspection area west of the river.

The records would have contained the name and address of the person selling livestock as well as a description of the animals.

Sale barns are already required to keep the records under an existing state law. The bill would have authorized law enforcement or state Brand Board officials to view the records.

The measure was requested by the Brand Board. Julie Kongslien, board director, said making the records available to law enforcement would be helpful when investigating livestock theft.

Jerry Vogeler, executive director of the South Dakota Livestock Auction Markets Association, said the bill would be unenforceable because rustlers wouldn't say where the animals really came from.

He also said the bill was unnecessary since sale barns already have to keep the same records, and law enforcement already have access to them. He said sale barns should not be held liable for not being able to determine if animals came from outside the brand inspection area.

"There's a lot of cattle East River that are carrying brands--and the livestock auction market owner has no way of knowing where the animal originated," Vogeler said.

Rep. Dale Hargens, D-Miller, agreed with Vogeler that the bill would place a heavy burden on sale barns east of the river. It would make more sense to expand the brand inspection area to include the whole state rather than make the sale barns liable for something they can't control, he said.

Date:1/24/06