Document type : Article published on the Agglotv (Switzerland) website
Author : Agglotv
Preview: Improvements in animal welfare have a positive effect on the living conditions of farm animals and the public's confidence in agriculture. The Protection Suisse des Animaux (PSA), the Société des Vétérinaires Suisses (SVS) and the Swiss Association des Petits Paysans (small farmers) are calling on the Conseil Nationall to support the Conseil Fédéral in improving animal welfare.
A policy of non-action is not an option.
The Conseil National will debate the initiative on intensive livestock farming during its winter session. In its statement on the direct counter-proposal to the initiative, the Conseil Fédéral confirmed the need for action on animal welfare: farm animals are currently not sufficiently protected. In the deliberations of the Conseil National's Committee for Economic Affairs and Taxation (CER-N), however, a majority of the parties refused to acknowledge this. The direct counter-proposal and a compromise proposal produced at legislative level are in danger of being rejected. The losers are the animals.
Focus on the animal
The Protection Suisse des Animaux (PSA), the Société des Vétérinaires Suisses (SVS) and the Swiss Association des Petits Paysans are familiar with current animal production practices and know the enormous market pressures on farmers. For these three organisations, though, it is clear that high-yield livestock farming, increased productivity and the expansion of mass livestock farming are not solutions in such a situation. In particular, they do not improve the health and welfare of the animals, quite the contrary. The PSA, the SVS and small farmers association are calling for a system change that would put animals back at the heart of the process. This is also what the public wants the farming world to do.
Compromise proposal
During its winter session, the Conseil National will now have the opportunity to respond to this public demand. The aim of the initiative on intensive livestock farming and the Conseil Fédéral's direct counter-proposal is to improve the situation through a number of projects to ensure that livestock farming and slaughter conditions are conducted humanely and that animals are regularly allowed to spend time in the open. If the Conseil National rejects these two proposals, the three organisations support a compromise proposal at legislative level (National Councillor Kilian Baumann's parliamentary initiative) which sets out to "improve animal welfare by taking into account locally adapted, market-oriented and ecologically sustainable production".
