FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE COWS

An amateur homesteader from Vermont fights the federal government in a grassroots effort to defeat a program designed to track the whereabouts and movements of farm animals.

Maddie Gillman did not always live on 12 acres of land. She did not always have a horse, chickens, pigs and dogs to feed every morning, summer or winter. When God told her to accept His gift of land, she gave up her metropolitan lifestyle and switched to rural living. Now she believes her way of life is threatened by a government program called National Animal Identification System (NAIS), which calls for animal owners to register their properties and animals for inclusion in a database, to track animals in case of disease outbreak. The program would also require owners to report whenever animals cross property lines. Maddie and her activist colleagues insist that the program will drive small farmers into bankruptcy–also at stake are the civil liberties of owners who do not sell any animal products and the religious freedom of owners who fear the tags are the mark of the beast. Zecchinelli calls her book a novel, but no elements of a novel are evident. There is no attempt at character development, no subplots and few setting descriptions. While the book begins with a promising account of the protagonist’s morning routine, the text soon devolves into a blow-by-blow account of the political process surrounding NAIS and Maddie’s attempts to derail it. Almost every line of dialogue exists to impart information and never escapes that stiff framework–there’s insufficient beauty in the language. Fellow protesters will enjoy reading about their efforts, but the layperson may not understand why Maddie is fighting so hard. The author tends to assume readers are aware of the program and the voices against it, but it may take an Internet search for readers to find real clarity.

A book stemming from a passionate cause that misses its mark.