By Alabama Public Radio
Montgomery, AL – State Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks is upset about recent comments from Republican gubernatorial candidate Roy Moore. Sparks says Moore's remarks about mad cow disease are an embarrassment to Alabama. Sparks is pushing legislation that would allow the state agriculture department to use an animal identification system consistent with U-S-D-A standards. But Moore doesn't like the idea, saying it's unnecessary and would be an unprecedented intrusion into the right to own animals. He even suggested it was a strange coincidence the Alabama case of mad cow disease was discovered after Moore started criticizing the proposed I-D system. Sparks says that was an unfair comment to the state and federal employees who have worked to investigate the case. He says Moore just doesn't understand the cattle business.