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Beagle Brigade gets long-term future with new law

The popular Beagle Brigade program that helps prevent foreign pests and diseases from impacting U.S. agriculture has a more certain future thanks to a recently passed law.

Chase Adams is the Assistant Vice President for Domestic Policy for the National Pork Producers Council.  He tells Brownfield the new law helps guarantee the use of detector dogs at U.S. ports of entry for years to come. “The current detector dog training program is a discretionary program under USDA, so what this law does is it codifies that program.”

Adams says diseases like African Swine Fever are a huge concern, especially since it is common in the nearby Domician Republic. “There’s a lot of migrant traffic in that region, in the Caribean area, and so we’re constantly working with USDA and USDA Wildlife Services to make sure that we’re controlling as best we can those vectors of transmission.”

Ohio producer and NPPC President-Elect Duane Stattler tells Brownfield pork producers rely heavily on foreign trade, so keeping foreign pests and diseases out of the U.S. is critical. “Over 26% of our product relies on trade, so that’s, you know, over a fourth of it and if you look at the margins, the profit we make is all out of what we’re able to do from our extra that we export as far as what comes back to the farm.”

The Beagle Brigade Act, signed into law December 23^rd, also provides for the Georgia detector dog training center, ensures shelter, veterinary care, and nutrition for the dogs, provides for adoption of out-of-service dogs, and requires yearly reporting to Congress.  

Stattler says more than 50 organizations helped encourage passage of the Beagle Brigade Act in the past three years.

Audio: Chase Adams discusses the new Beagle Brigade Act with Brownfield’s Larry Lee.

Audio: Duane Stattler discusses the new Beagle Brigade Act with Brownfield’s Larry Lee.