Lun, 27 de noviembre de 2023
The Federal Council wants to put a stop to the irresponsible import of young dogs. Puppies will now only be allowed to be brought into Switzerland from the age of 15 weeks. With these and other tightening measures, the Federal Council is responding to parliamentary demands.
With the tightening of the law, the Federal Council wants to ensure that fewer puppies are bought abroad spontaneously and carelessly via the internet, as the Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA) wrote at the opening of the consultation on Monday. The animals are ordered via the Internet and brought to Switzerland by collective transport.
According to the FDHA, these transports also carry the risk of the very young dogs infecting each other with diseases. This is because there is currently no minimum age for importing puppies into Switzerland. However, if the puppies are under eight weeks old, they may only be brought into the country together with their mother.
According to the FDHA, the age limit of 15 weeks or around four months exists in many EU countries. However, the Federal Council wants to make an exception to the rule for private individuals who collect a young dog themselves from a breeder abroad. There are also to be exceptions for the import of young service dogs.
The number of imported eight to 15-week-old puppies increased, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, to a total of around 15,500 in 2021, according to the Amicus database. In 2022, there were still 12,200 registered imported dogs in this age group and by the end of October 2023, there were 7,600.
The database does not provide information on the origin of these animals – whether from breeding, animal welfare or found animals. The overall number of imported dogs also fell in 2022. Most imported dogs were mixed breeds; the next places in the ranking are occupied by small breeds. In total, there were around 562,000 dogs living in Switzerland at the last count.
The Federal Council is proposing further tightening of animal protection regulations, including in favor of laboratory animals. It now wants to stipulate that the breeding of animals must be expressly limited to the minimum necessary.
The destination of all laboratory animals is also to be recorded in a new database. According to the FDHA, this should prevent institutions from breeding animals for experiments for which they are not used and are therefore killed.
The Federal Council also wants to stipulate that cages and enclosures for laboratory animals must offer opportunities for retreat. The Federal Council’s proposals are based on the 3Rs principle, i.e. reducing the number of animals (Reduce), replacing animal experiments (Replacement) and improving the methods used (Refine).
Stricter regulations are also to apply to the handling of animals in future. The Federal Council wants to ban the clipping of chicken beaks and the shortening of sheep tails as well as certain methods of handling horses, ponies and donkeys and equipment for handling these animals.
The proposals are subject to consultation until March 15, 2024.
©Keystone/SDA
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