Future microchip requirement for cats: A step towards animal welfare

Cat owners will be required to have their animals microchipped in the future.

The Federal Council proposes accepting a corresponding motion by National Councillor Meret Schneider (Greens/ZH). The authorities are already at work.

26 council members support the motion

National Councillor Schneider’s motion envisions a mandatory electronic identification requirement for all cats. 26 council members from several parliamentary groups have co-signed the proposal. The general consensus is that a national registration requirement for domestic cats could resolve many existing problems.

More than 10’000 cats are reported missing every year. This is often followed by a stay of several months in an animal shelter — but this need not be the case. The problem is obvious and would be easy to solve: unlike dogs, there is no registration or microchip requirement for cats, even though they are equally household pets. Introducing a registration requirement analogous to the legislation for dogs would have numerous advantages — not only the obvious one that the owner of a microchipped and registered cat can be contacted immediately once the cat is found. The unscrupulous puppy trade also illustrates how important registration requirements are.

The Federal Council is of the same opinion. It proposes accepting the motion. A mandatory identification and registration requirement would create an important foundation for animal welfare, while at the same time increasing the responsibility placed on animal owners, the Federal Government stated in justification of its decision.

Furthermore, the Federal Council noted that every cat would receive a health check during microchipping by a veterinarian. Cat owners could be made aware of health-related issues — including vaccinations, deworming, and neutering. Finally, a mandatory microchipping requirement would create the data foundation needed to examine the impact of cats on biodiversity more precisely.

FSVO Clarifying Mandatory Microchipping

The Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) has already been conducting investigations into a national mandatory microchipping requirement for cats for some time. To this end, the office is in contact with the cantonal veterinary services.

According to the association Katzenfreunde Schweiz, between 100,000 and 300,000 feral cats live in this country. These animals reportedly suffer from the fact that no one cares for them. Birds, reptiles, and insects that fall prey to cats also suffer from the uncontrolled reproduction of cats.

At the end of 2019, the Federal Council and the National Council had opted against mandatory microchipping. At that time, the weighing of benefits and costs did not reveal any necessity for a binding introduction, it was stated.

The Federal Council continues to refrain from requiring that stray cats be neutered by a veterinarian. This would be disproportionate, it wrote.