[Politech] John Gilmore on the homeless, RFID tags, and kittens [priv]

[Declan McCullagh]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Politech] HHS announces program to implant RFID tags in
homeless [priv]
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 11:13:21 -0800
From: John Gilmore <gnu at toad.com>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan at well.com>
CC: politech at politechbot.com

Last year I found it almost impossible to adopt a kitten or cat that
didn't have an RFID tag implanted under its skin.  The city animal
shelter and the SPCA both "chip" all their animals -- and pet
hospitals who offer adoption get all their pets from these shelters.
The people we spoke with in the shelters were confused by our
opposition to their "safe, sane, and humane" policy of RFID-tracking
every animal that came within chip-gun range of them.  When a cat is
lost, they scan 'em like a bag of potato chips, pull 'em up in the
database, and call their owner.

Eventually by reading the bulletin boards in pet stores, we found a
local Mexican family who had two litters of kittens.  They had been
born at home and never subjected to "chipping".  Our kittens are now
grown and healthy (and untracked).

I would not be a bit surprised to see bureaucrats at any level
advocating RFID tracking of the homeless.  They're already taking
blood samples of every newborn, storing them away "just in case we
ever need to check their DNA".  And giving every infant their own
Social Security Number, just to make sure they get tracked from birth
to death.  A kitten or an infant who comes to the attention of the
authorities can't tell you who they are or where they belong.  So why
not chip the homeless, who frequently can't or won't answer the same
question?  It's a fair question.  What's YOUR answer?

	John

PS:  If Larry Hiibel had had a chip implanted in him, Deputy Dove wouldn't
have had to arrest him.  This would have saved the Supreme Court some work.
http://hiibel.com


_______________________________________________
Politech mailing list
Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)

--- end forwarded text


-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at shipwright.com>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
'Maybe we should just brand all babies.' -- Ronald Reagan, sarcastically,
on the subject of a national ID card.