Animals Federal Council favors national chip requirement for cats
Cat owners should have to chip their pets in future. The Federal Council is proposing the adoption of a corresponding motion by National Councillor Meret Schneider (Greens/ZH), as announced on Wednesday. The authorities are already at work.
19.02.2025, 17:32
SDA
In her motion, National Councillor Schneider proposes the mandatory electronic identification of all cats. 26 members of the Council from several parliamentary groups have co-signed the motion. The tenor is that many existing problems could be solved with a national registration requirement for domestic cats.
The Federal Council is of the same opinion. It is proposing that the motion be adopted. A compulsory identification and registration requirement would create an important basis for animal welfare and at the same time make pet owners more responsible, the government explained its decision.
In addition, every cat would be given a health check by a vet when it is identified, according to the Federal Council. 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.
No castration
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.
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 Federal Council and National Council 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.
