Rep. Marc Roberts, R-Santaquin, is hoping to allow individuals who own shares of cattle, also known as cow-sharing or herd-sharing, to be able to use the milk produced by them, even if the animals are not housed on their own property.
Representative Roberts explained to the committee that current law “allows the hide, meat and manure [be] consumed by everyone that owns the cow.” However, “if we go 50/50 on it together, and it is housed on my property, I can consume the milk that is produced by the cow” while others that own a share in the cow cannot.
During a nearly two-hour long committee hearing early in February, representatives listened to arguments both for and against HB104 with the most notable opposition coming from dairy association members and epidemiologists citing concerns over possible health hazards in the consumption of raw milk.
Paula Milby spoke in favor of the Bill after spending the last several years doing extensive research on the issue of cow-sharing. She stated that, “In Utah code, you are entitled to own personal property; cattle being one of them.” Milby continued, “There is no other piece of personal property that is regulated to a specific degree” as livestock, including cows, goats, sheep and other hoofed animals.
As of this writing, HB104 was held to give members of the committee a chance to research the issue of cow-sharing in more detail. Several representatives expressed the need to find a compromise that addresses the health concerns in addition to allowing individual access to personal property.
“All that has happened by that law that is in play right now is you have created criminals out of people where there should be no crime,” Milby said. “The practice of cow-sharing is currently going on and will continue. People are ignoring the law because they just cannot possibly believe that the legislatures would strip them of that degree of property right
