Initiative: Stop Factory Farming

Animal welfare, animal rights, and environmental organizations are launching a popular initiative against factory farming.

The initiators demand that no animal should have to spend its life under such conditions.

The image of idyllic animal husbandry — where cows stand in pastures and chickens peck in the mud — rarely reflects reality, the animal rights organization Sentience Politics criticizes in a statement issued on Tuesday.

The popular initiative «No factory farming in Switzerland (Factory Farming Initiative)» calls for a constitutional amendment on agricultural animal husbandry, as published in the «Federal Gazette». The initiators must collect the required 100’000 signatures by 12 December 2019.

The popular initiative is backed by individuals from 15 organizations, including Vera Weber of the Fondation Franz Weber, as well as representatives of Greenpeace and the Green Party.

More than 14 chickens per square meter, only one fifth of the barn covered with litter, cows kept in tethered housing with just 70 to 120 centimeters of standing width per animal, and ten pigs sharing the space of a single parking space: the Factory Farming Initiative aims to put a stop to such conditions.

The popular initiative also seeks to curb the trend toward ever-larger operations, high-performance breeding, and the maximization of production, according to the initiators. These goals are to be achieved through an amendment to Article 80a of the Federal Constitution.

The Confederation would thereby be required to protect the dignity of animals in agricultural husbandry. Animal dignity encompasses the right not to live in factory farming conditions. Factory farming refers to the industrial keeping of animals for the purpose of producing animal products as efficiently as possible, in a manner that systematically violates animal welfare.

The federal government shall establish criteria for animal-friendly housing and care, outdoor access, slaughter, and maximum group sizes per barn. It shall also issue regulations on the importation of animals and animal products for food purposes. Maximum transition periods of 25 years are provided for the implementation of the initiative.