The National Council refused this morning a motion by the Zurich ecologist Meret Schneider (V/ZH), who wanted to make electronic drawing of all cats in Switzerland compulsory. The federal advisor Elisabeth Balmme-Schneider supported this proposal, which made it possible to go from the current optional puking to a generalized practice. But the cat must remain a cat.
Meret Schneider compared cats with dogs: “Cat holders are not required to record their pet, nor provide it with an electronic chip, although cats are as much domestic animals as dogs. The establishment of an obligation to record cats would have several advantages, in addition to that of allowing cat owners to be contacted immediately when their animal is found ”.
She thus saw there practical and scientific advantages to better understand the feline population in Switzerland. Finally, she saw it as “the possibility for the owners to configure their cat’s so that only their own cat can borrow it, according to configurable schedules, which makes it possible to prevent people from the neighborhood or other unwanted animals from being able to enter the accommodation”.
But for Sylvain Freymond (UDC/VD): “Establishing a general obligation to put on cats would amount to imposing an additional administrative and financial burden, without real added value. This measure would primarily target owners who, for the most part, already act responsible. But above all, this motion ignores the reality on the ground. An important part of stray cats in Switzerland have no owner ”.
-For Elisabeth Baume-Schneider: “The obligation to identify and record cats would make it possible to have a detailed view of their number, their origin, their density in certain regions as well as the different cats of cats or their distribution in Switzerland (…) The obligation to record would above all allow to better monitor epizootics and zoonoses, and if necessary to fight them”.
It has articulated a figure, according to a study: “Switzerland has around 225,000 uncontrolled cats and that this number could be even higher …”
But in the vote, the bourgeois parties – UDC, PLR and center – saved the spirit of freedom that blows on cats by refusing Meret Schneider’s proposal by 108 votes to 80.
