Allen commented (and Peter has all ready concurred) "In other times, and
even now in some other jurisdictions, inspections have been largely
political and mostly decorative.  The abuses range from incompetence to
favouritism, expense padding, looking the other way, and more.
Any inspection programme needs to have rational and goals reached by
consensus that do not oppress any minority, a person of high competence and
integrity at the head, and a government and beekeeper population wiling to
fund the programme and allow him/her do the job without fear or favour."

Like Peter, I was briefly part of the NY Inspection Services.  Like Peter,
I agree that the above describes my experience with the NYS service.

But I want to caution...Most of the Inspectors (as individuals) were and
are straight-forward persons, god-fearing, and essentially honest.  It was
(and is) the program itself that is corrupt and that (in turn) corrupts the
individuals.  I really don't want to go into what I found too much, but the
corruption included (1) giving fellow commercial beekeepers a free pass as
they and the Inspectors were among the peas in a pod, (2) deliberately
extending work days long enough to collect supper money, (3) creating and
maintaining paperwork which only purpose was to enhance the role of
supervisors, etc.  And NYS beekeepers absolutely refuse to fund the
program.

Sorry, Mike, but AFAIK there is no similar program for cows, goats, sheep,
horses, etc. and I hope to (finally) see the day when even the remnants we
have in NY are totally gone.

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