Swiss government supports national chip requirement for cats

Federal Council supports national chip requirement for cats Keystone-SDA

Cat owners should be required to chip their pets in the future in Switzerland. The federal government is proposing the adoption of a corresponding motion by parliamentarian Meret Schneider, as announced on Wednesday.

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In her proposal, Schneider calls for all cats to be required to be identified electronically. The proposal was co-signed by 26 members of the Swiss Senate from several parliamentary groups. The proposal argues that many existing problems could be solved with a national registration requirement for domestic cats.

The government is of the same opinion. It is proposing that the motion be adopted. Mandatory identification and registration would create an important basis for animal welfare and at the same time make pet owners more responsible, the government explained in its decision.

In addition, every cat would be given a health check by a vet when it is identified. Pet owners could be made more aware of health issues such as vaccination, worming and neutering. Finally, mandatory chipping would create the data basis for a more detailed study of the impact of cats on biodiversity.

Weighing benefits and costs

The Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) has been investigating a national chip requirement for cats for some time. To this end, the Office is in contact with the cantonal veterinary services. It confirmed a report in the Blick newspaper in mid-December.

Some 100,000 to 300,000 feral cats live in Switzerland, according to the Swiss Cat Friends Association. According to the report, they suffer because no one takes care of them. Birds, reptiles and insects that fall victim to cats also suffer from the uncontrolled proliferation of cats.

At the end of 2019, the government and the House of Representatives decided against mandatory chipping. At the time, the benefits and costs were weighed up and it was decided that there was no need for a mandatory introduction.

The Federal Council still has no intention of making it compulsory for stray cats to be neutered by a vet. This would be disproportionate, it wrote.

Translated from German by DeepL/jdp

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