Animal Welfare Act
(AniWA)

The pur­pose of this Act is to pro­tect the dig­nity and wel­fare of an­im­als.

¹ The present Act ap­plies to ver­teb­rates. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­cides to which in­ver­teb­rates it ap­plies and to what ex­tent. In do­ing so, it is guided by sci­entif­ic know­ledge on the sen­tience of in­ver­teb­rate an­im­als.

² The fol­low­ing are re­served: the Hunt­ing Act of 20 June 1986³, the Fed­er­al Act of 1 Ju­ly 1966⁴ on the Pro­tec­tion of Nature and Cul­tur­al Her­it­age, the Fed­er­al Act of 21 June 1991⁵ on Fish­ing, the Vo­ca­tion­al and Pro­fes­sion­al Train­ing and Edu­ca­tion Act of 13 Decem­ber 2002⁶ and the Epi­zo­ot­ic Dis­eases Act of 1 Ju­ly 1966⁷.

In this Act:

a.

dig­nity means the in­her­ent worth of the an­im­al that must be re­spec­ted when deal­ing with it. If any strain im­posed on the an­im­al can­not be jus­ti­fied by over­rid­ing in­terests, this con­sti­tutes a dis­reg­ard for the an­im­al’s dig­nity. Strain is deemed to be present in par­tic­u­lar if pain, suf­fer­ing or harm is in­flic­ted on the an­im­al, if it is ex­posed to anxi­ety or hu­mi­li­ation, if there is ma­jor in­ter­fer­ence with its ap­pear­ance or its abil­it­ies or if it is ex­cess­ively in­stru­ment­al­ised;

b.

well-be­ing: the well-be­ing of an­im­als ex­ists if:

1.

hus­bandry and feed­ing are such that their bod­ily func­tions and their be­ha­viour are not dis­turbed and ex­cess­ive de­mands are not made on their ca­pa­city to ad­apt,

2.

spe­cies-spe­cif­ic be­ha­viour with­in the lim­its of their bio­lo­gic­al ca­pa­city to ad­apt is guar­an­teed,

3.

they are clin­ic­ally healthy,

4.

pain, suf­fer­ing, harm and anxi­ety are avoided;

c.

an­im­al ex­per­i­ment means any pro­ced­ure in which a live an­im­al is used with the aim of:

1.

test­ing a sci­entif­ic hy­po­thes­is,

2.

ob­serving the ef­fect of a par­tic­u­lar pro­ced­ure in the an­im­al,

3.

test­ing a sub­stance,

4.

ob­tain­ing or test­ing cells, or­gans or bod­ily flu­ids, ex­cept when this is in the con­text of ag­ri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­tion, dia­gnost­ic or cur­at­ive activ­it­ies in­volving the an­im­al or to de­term­ine the health status of an­im­al pop­u­la­tions,

5.

ob­tain­ing or rep­lic­at­ing or­gan­isms ali­en to the spe­cies in ques­tion,

6.

teach­ing or train­ing.

¹ Any per­son who handles an­im­als must:

a.

take ac­count of their needs as well as pos­sible; and

b.

en­sure their well-be­ing as far as the in­ten­ded pur­pose per­mits.

² No per­son may in­flict pain, suf­fer­ing or harm on an an­im­al, in­duce anxi­ety in an an­im­al or dis­reg­ard its dig­nity in any oth­er way without jus­ti­fic­a­tion. It is for­bid­den to mis­handle, neg­lect or un­ne­ces­sar­ily over­work an­im­als.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil for­bids any fur­ther activ­it­ies in­volving an­im­als if such activ­it­ies dis­reg­ard their dig­nity.

¹ The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment may pro­mote the con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion and train­ing of per­sons who handle an­im­als.

^1bis The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for cer­tain train­ing and edu­ca­tion activ­it­ies to be re­cog­nised by the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment or the can­tons.⁸

² The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment shall en­sure that the pub­lic are in­formed about an­im­al wel­fare is­sues.⁹

¹ Any per­son who keeps or looks after an­im­als must feed and care for them prop­erly and provide them with the activ­it­ies and free­dom of move­ment needed for their well-be­ing as well as shel­ter where ne­ces­sary.

² Hav­ing con­sul­ted the in­ter­ested parties, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue reg­u­la­tions, spe­cific­ally min­im­um re­quire­ments, on the hous­ing of an­im­als, tak­ing in­to ac­count the sci­entif­ic evid­ence, the state of the art and tech­nic­al de­vel­op­ments. It shall pro­hib­it forms of an­im­al hus­bandry that con­tra­vene the ba­sic prin­ciples of an­im­al wel­fare.

³ It may define re­quire­ments for the con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion and train­ing of an­im­al keep­ers and per­sons who train an­im­als or per­form care-re­lated activ­it­ies on them.¹⁰

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may make cer­tain types of an­im­al hus­bandry, the keep­ing of cer­tain an­im­al spe­cies and cer­tain care-re­lated activ­it­ies sub­ject to the ful­fil­ment of re­port­ing or au­thor­isa­tion re­quire­ments.¹²

² The pla­cing on the mar­ket of mass-pro­duced hous­ing sys­tems and in­stall­a­tions for farm an­im­als re­quires fed­er­al au­thor­isa­tion. Au­thor­isa­tion is only gran­ted if the sys­tems and in­stall­a­tions meet the re­quire­ments of spe­cies-ap­pro­pri­ate hus­bandry. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the au­thor­isa­tion pro­ced­ure and de­term­ines the farm an­im­als to which the pro­ced­ure ap­plies. It may al­low ex­emp­tions from au­thor­isa­tion re­quire­ments for cer­tain types of an­im­al hus­bandry.

³ Au­thor­isa­tion is re­quired for the com­mer­cial and private keep­ing of wild an­im­als that pose par­tic­u­lar chal­lenges in terms of hus­bandry and care. It is for­bid­den to im­port dol­phins and oth­er ceta­ceans (Ceta­cea).¹³

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­quire the pla­cing on the mar­ket and the use of pain-in­du­cing aids and equip­ment for the train­ing and con­trol of an­im­als to be re­por­ted or au­thor­ised or may for­bid these activ­it­ies.¹⁴

Fol­low­ing con­struc­tion, build­ings and in­stall­a­tions for farm an­im­als li­censed in ac­cord­ance with this Act may be used for at least their nor­mal de­pre­ciable life.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may define the areas oth­er than ag­ri­cul­ture in which the use of an­im­al care work­ers is ne­ces­sary.

¹ The use of nat­ur­al and ar­ti­fi­cial meth­ods of breed­ing and re­pro­duc­tion must not cause any pain, suf­fer­ing, harm or be­ha­vi­our­al dis­orders in the par­ent an­im­als or their off­spring that res­ult from or are as­so­ci­ated with the breed­ing ob­ject­ive, sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions on an­im­al ex­per­i­ments.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue reg­u­la­tions on the breed­ing and pro­duc­tion of an­im­als and define the cri­ter­ia for as­sess­ing the per­miss­ib­il­ity of breed­ing ob­ject­ives and re­pro­duc­tion meth­ods; in do­ing so, it con­siders the an­im­al’s dig­nity. It may pro­hib­it the breed­ing, pro­duc­tion, hus­bandry, im­port, trans­it, ex­port and pla­cing on the mar­ket of an­im­als with cer­tain traits, in par­tic­u­lar phys­ic­al and be­ha­vi­our­al ab­nor­mal­it­ies.¹⁵

¹ Any per­son who pro­duces, breeds, keeps, man­ages or trades in ge­net­ic­ally mod­i­fied an­im­als re­quires can­ton­al au­thor­isa­tion. Any per­son who pro­duces, breeds, keeps or trades in such an­im­als for the pur­pose of re­search, ther­apy or dia­gnostics re­quires can­ton­al au­thor­isa­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 19 para­graph 1. In oth­er cases, the au­thor­isa­tion pro­ced­ure is based on the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing an­im­al ex­per­i­ments and on the Gene Tech­no­logy Act of 21 March 2003¹⁶.

² Hav­ing con­sul­ted the in­ter­ested parties, the Fed­er­al Eth­ics Com­mit­tee on Non-Hu­man Bi­o­tech­no­logy, the Swiss Ex­pert Com­mit­tee for Biosafety and the Swiss Com­mit­tee on An­im­al Ex­per­i­ments, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall define the cri­ter­ia for weigh­ing the im­plic­a­tions of pro­du­cing, breed­ing, hous­ing and us­ing ge­net­ic­ally mod­i­fied an­im­als and trad­ing in such an­im­als.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the re­quire­ments bind­ing on the in­sti­tutes in which activ­it­ies as defined in the second sen­tence of para­graph 1 are car­ried out, and in par­tic­u­lar the re­quire­ments with re­gard to in­fra­struc­ture, per­son­nel, su­per­vi­sion and doc­u­ment­a­tion.

⁴ It may al­low ex­emp­tions from the au­thor­isa­tion re­quire­ment or sim­pli­fic­a­tions in the au­thor­isa­tion pro­ced­ure, par­tic­u­larly if it is cer­tain that the an­im­als will not ex­per­i­ence pain, suf­fer­ing or harm, or de­vel­op be­ha­vi­our­al dis­orders as a res­ult of the pro­duc­tion and breed­ing meth­ods and that their dig­nity will oth­er­wise be taken in­to ac­count.

¹ The can­ton­al au­thor­ity must be no­ti­fied of ge­net­ic­ally mod­i­fied an­im­als that ex­per­i­ence pain, suf­fer­ing or harm, or de­vel­op be­ha­vi­our­al dis­orders as a res­ult of pro­duc­tion or breed­ing or whose dig­nity is vi­ol­ated in oth­er ways.

² The can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall sub­mit these re­ports to the can­ton­al com­mit­tee on an­im­al ex­per­i­ments and de­cide on the ad­miss­ib­il­ity of fur­ther breed­ing on the basis of the ap­plic­a­tion.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the de­tails of the re­port.

¹ Au­thor­isa­tion is re­quired for com­mer­cial trad­ing in an­im­als and the use of live an­im­als for ad­vert­ising pur­poses.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­quire supra-re­gion­al events in­volving an­im­als to be re­por­ted or au­thor­ised.

¹ For reas­ons of an­im­al wel­fare, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may at­tach con­di­tions to, re­strict or pro­hib­it the im­port, trans­it and ex­port of an­im­als and an­im­al products.²⁰ The fore­go­ing does not ap­ply to kosh­er or halal meat in or­der to en­sure an ad­equate sup­ply of such meat to the Jew­ish and Muslim com­munit­ies. Au­thor­isa­tion to im­port and ob­tain such products is re­stric­ted to mem­bers of these com­munit­ies and as­so­ci­ated leg­al en­tit­ies and part­ner­ships.

² The im­port, trans­it and ex­port of cat and dog pelts and products made from them is for­bid­den, as is trade in pelts and products of this kind.²¹

¹ An­im­als must be trans­por­ted un­der pro­tec­ted con­di­tions and without un­ne­ces­sary delay. The trav­el­ling time from the place of load­ing must not be more than six hours. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue the ex­cep­tion pro­vi­sions.

² Hav­ing con­sul­ted the in­dustry or­gan­isa­tions, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late re­quire­ments for the con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion and train­ing of per­son­nel en­trus­ted with the com­mer­cial trans­port of an­im­als.

¹ Any per­son who per­forms in­ter­na­tion­al an­im­al trans­port on a com­mer­cial basis shall re­quire au­thor­isa­tion.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may stip­u­late which in­ter­na­tion­al stand­ards must be ob­served for in­ter­na­tion­al an­im­al trans­port.

³ Cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, horses for slaughter and poultry for slaughter may only pass through Switzer­land by rail or air.

Pain­ful in­ter­ven­tions may only be per­formed un­der gen­er­al or loc­al an­aes­thesia ad­min­istered by a spe­cial­ist. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine any ex­cep­tions. It shall de­term­ine which per­sons are deemed to be spe­cial­ists. This is sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions of this Act re­lat­ing to an­im­al ex­per­i­ments.

An­im­al ex­per­i­ments which in­flict pain, suf­fer­ing or harm on an­im­als, in­duce anxi­ety in them, sub­stan­tially im­pair their gen­er­al well-be­ing or which may dis­reg­ard their dig­nity in any oth­er way must be lim­ited to the in­dis­pens­able min­im­um.

¹ Any per­son who wishes to con­duct an­im­al ex­per­i­ments re­quires au­thor­isa­tion from the re­spons­ible can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies.

² Activ­it­ies as defined in the last sen­tence of Art­icle 11 para­graph 1 are equi­val­ent to an­im­al ex­per­i­ments with­in the scope of the au­thor­isa­tion pro­ced­ure.

³ The com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall sub­mit re­quests for au­thor­isa­tion for an­im­al ex­per­i­ments to the can­ton­al com­mit­tee on an­im­al ex­per­i­ments in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 17.

⁴ Au­thor­isa­tion is is­sued for a lim­ited peri­od. They may be sub­ject to con­di­tions and re­quire­ments.

⁵ In­sti­tutes and labor­at­or­ies which con­duct an­im­al ex­per­i­ments and fa­cil­it­ies that house labor­at­ory an­im­als must keep re­cords of the an­im­als housed.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall define the re­quire­ments to be sat­is­fied by in­sti­tutes and labor­at­or­ies in which an­im­al ex­per­i­ments may be con­duc­ted in terms of the con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion and train­ing of per­son­nel and the au­thor­isa­tion of labor­at­ory an­im­al hous­ing, breed­ing and trad­ing fa­cil­it­ies.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil defines the cri­ter­ia for as­sess­ing in­dis­pens­ab­il­ity un­der Art­icle 17.

³ It may de­clare cer­tain ex­per­i­ment­al pur­poses to be im­per­miss­ible.

⁴ An an­im­al ex­per­i­ment is im­per­miss­ible in par­tic­u­lar if the pain, suf­fer­ing or harm it in­volves or anxi­ety it in­duces is dis­pro­por­tion­ate to the an­ti­cip­ated gain in know­ledge.

¹ Pain, suf­fer­ing or harm may be in­flic­ted on, or anxi­ety in­duced in, an­im­als only if this is un­avoid­able for the pur­pose of the ex­per­i­ment.

² Ex­per­i­ments on an­im­als high­er on the evol­u­tion­ary scale may only be car­ried out if the pur­pose of the ex­per­i­ment can­not be achieved in an­im­al spe­cies that are lower on the evol­u­tion­ary scale and no suit­able al­tern­at­ive meth­ods are avail­able.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the fur­ther re­quire­ments gov­ern­ing the con­duct of ex­per­i­ments.

¹ After an an­im­al ex­per­i­ment has been con­cluded, the Fed­er­al Food Safety and Veter­in­ary Of­fice (FS­VO)²⁵ shall pub­lish the fol­low­ing in­form­a­tion:

a. The title and field of the an­im­al ex­per­i­ment;

b. The pur­pose of the ex­per­i­ment;

c. The num­ber of an­im­als used per spe­cies;

d. The de­gree of sever­ity of the con­straint im­posed on the an­im­als.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for fur­ther in­form­a­tion to be pub­lished as long as there are no le­git­im­ate over­rid­ing private or pub­lic in­terests.

³ It reg­u­lates the de­tails, in par­tic­u­lar the level of de­tail, of the in­form­a­tion that the per­sons re­spons­ible for an an­im­al ex­per­i­ment must provide. In do­ing so, it takes in­to ac­count the le­git­im­ate over­rid­ing private or pub­lic in­terests.

¹ The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment op­er­ates an in­form­a­tion sys­tem to sup­port the stat­utory tasks of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment and the can­tons re­lat­ing to an­im­al ex­per­i­ments.

² The in­form­a­tion sys­tem con­tains the fol­low­ing per­son­al data:

a.

data con­cern­ing ad­min­is­trat­ive and crim­in­al pro­sec­u­tions and sanc­tions;

b.

data con­cern­ing au­thor­isa­tions and the mon­it­or­ing of an­im­al ex­per­i­ments;

c.

data con­cern­ing au­thor­isa­tions and the mon­it­or­ing of labor­at­ory an­im­al hous­ing, breed­ing and trad­ing fa­cil­it­ies;

d.

data con­cern­ing no­ti­fic­a­tions of lines and strains that have a sig­ni­fic­ant clin­ic­al patho­lo­gic­al phen­o­type;

e.²⁷

data con­cern­ing con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion and train­ing;

f.

data ne­ces­sary for the pub­lic­a­tion of an­im­al ex­per­i­ment stat­ist­ics;

g.

data ne­ces­sary for user and sys­tem ad­min­is­tra­tion.

¹ The fol­low­ing in­di­vidu­als may, in the course of their stat­utory du­ties, pro­cess per­son­al data, in­clud­ing sens­it­ive per­son­al data, and ac­cess them on­line:²⁸

a.

em­ploy­ees of the FS­VO who per­form tasks re­lat­ing to over­sight;

b.

em­ploy­ees of the can­ton­al au­thor­isa­tion au­thor­it­ies with­in their areas of re­spons­ib­il­ity;

c.

mem­bers of the can­ton­al com­mit­tees on an­im­al ex­per­i­ments with­in their areas of re­spons­ib­il­ity;

d.

em­ploy­ees of the in­sti­tutes, labor­at­or­ies and ex­per­i­ment­al an­im­al hous­ing, breed­ing and trad­ing fa­cil­it­ies with­in their areas of re­spons­ib­il­ity.

² Em­ploy­ees of the can­ton­al au­thor­isa­tion au­thor­it­ies and mem­bers of the can­ton­al com­mit­tees on an­im­al ex­per­i­ments may, in the course of their stat­utory du­ties, in­spect data re­lat­ing to au­thor­isa­tion re­quests and de­cisions from oth­er can­tons us­ing the call pro­ced­ure.

The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment levies fees on the can­tons for us­ing the in­form­a­tion sys­tem. The fees are set by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates:

a.

co­oper­a­tion with the can­tons;

b.

the data cata­logue;

c.

re­spons­ib­il­it­ies for data pro­cessing;

d.

ac­cess rights, spe­cific­ally the scope of ac­cess gran­ted in the call pro­ced­ure;

e.

the or­gan­isa­tion­al and tech­nic­al meas­ures ne­ces­sary to en­sure data pro­tec­tion and data se­cur­ity, spe­cific­ally the con­di­tions un­der which ac­cess can be gran­ted;

f.

archiv­ing;

g.

re­ten­tion and de­le­tion peri­ods.

¹ Mam­mals may not be slaughtered un­less they have been stunned be­fore the start of ex­san­guin­a­tion.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may also stip­u­late that oth­er an­im­als must be stunned be­fore they are slaughtered.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall spe­cify the per­mit­ted meth­ods of stun­ning.

⁴ After con­sulta­tion with the in­dustry or­gan­isa­tions, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall also reg­u­late the re­quire­ments with re­gard to the con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion and train­ing of slaughter­house per­son­nel.

¹ The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment shall carry out and sup­port sci­entif­ic re­search of rel­ev­ance to an­im­al wel­fare.

² In col­lab­or­a­tion with uni­versit­ies and in­dustry, the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment shall in par­tic­u­lar pro­mote the de­vel­op­ment, ac­cred­it­a­tion and ap­plic­a­tion of meth­ods that re­place an­im­al ex­per­i­ments, en­able few­er an­im­als to be used or res­ult in less strain for the an­im­als. In par­tic­u­lar, it shall pro­mote re­search pro­jects aimed at elim­in­at­ing pain, suf­fer­ing or anxi­ety in in­ter­ven­tions in terms of Art­icle 16.

¹ The com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies may ban from hous­ing, breed­ing, trad­ing in or work­ing pro­fes­sion­ally with an­im­als, for a spe­cified or un­spe­cified peri­od, per­sons who:

a.

have been con­victed of re­peated or ser­i­ous con­tra­ven­tions of the pro­vi­sions set out in this Act and its im­ple­ment­ing de­crees or of rul­ings;

b.

who are in­cap­able of hous­ing or breed­ing an­im­als for oth­er reas­ons.

² If such a ban is im­posed by one can­ton, it ap­plies throughout Switzer­land.

³ The FS­VO shall keep a list of the bans that have been im­posed. It may be con­sul­ted by the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 33 to en­able them to ful­fil their stat­utory du­ties.²⁹

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may con­clude in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies re­lat­ing to the re­cip­roc­al ex­change of in­form­a­tion on bans that have been im­posed. It may provide for bans im­posed abroad to be ap­plic­able in Switzer­land.³⁰

¹ If it is found that an­im­als are be­ing neg­lected or housed un­der com­pletely un­suit­able con­di­tions, the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies must in­ter­vene im­me­di­ately. They may con­fis­cate the an­im­als as a pre­cau­tion­ary meas­ure and house them in a suit­able place at the ex­pense of the an­im­al keep­er; if ne­ces­sary, they shall ar­range for the an­im­als to be sold or eu­th­an­ised. In do­ing so, they may en­list the as­sist­ance of po­lice au­thor­it­ies.

² The pro­ceeds of the sale of the an­im­als shall be giv­en to the an­im­al keep­er after the costs of the pro­ced­ure have been de­duc­ted.

³ If crim­in­al of­fences un­der this Act come to light, the au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for en­force­ment must re­port the of­fence.³¹

⁴ In minor cases, the au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for en­force­ment may de­cide not to re­port the of­fence.³²

¹ The FS­VO may lodge a form­al ap­peal un­der can­ton­al and fed­er­al law against rul­ings is­sued by can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies with re­gard to an­im­al ex­per­i­ments.

² The can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies must im­me­di­ately in­form the FS­VO of their de­cisions.

¹ A cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed on any per­son who wil­fully:³⁴

a.

mis­treats, neg­lects or un­ne­ces­sar­ily over­works an an­im­al or ab­uses its dig­nity in any oth­er way;

b.

kills an an­im­al in a man­ner that causes suf­fer­ing;

c.

or­gan­ises fights between or with an­im­als in which an­im­als are tor­men­ted or killed;

d.

in­flicts pain, suf­fer­ing or harm on, or in­duces anxi­ety in an an­im­al dur­ing the course of ex­per­i­ments, un­less this is un­avoid­able for the pur­pose of the ex­per­i­ment;

e.

re­leases or aban­dons an an­im­al that is kept in the house or on the farm with the in­ten­tion of rid­ding them­selves of it.

² If the of­fend­er has ac­ted through neg­li­gence, he or she is li­able to a mon­et­ary pen­alty not ex­ceed­ing 180 daily pen­alty units.³⁵

¹ ...³⁷

² Any per­son who, when trad­ing in an­im­als and an­im­al products, wil­fully dis­reg­ards con­di­tions, re­stric­tions or bans un­der Art­icle 14 shall be li­able to a fine of up to CHF 20,000. At­tempts, com­pli­city and in­cite­ment are also of­fences. If the of­fend­er has ac­ted through neg­li­gence, he or she is li­able to a fine.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully does any of the fol­low­ing is li­able to a fine of up to CHF 20,000 un­less Art­icle 26 is ap­plic­able:³⁸

a.

dis­reg­ards the reg­u­la­tions on hous­ing an­im­als;

b.

vi­ol­ates the reg­u­la­tions on breed­ing or pro­du­cing an­im­als;

c.

vi­ol­ates the reg­u­la­tions on pro­du­cing, breed­ing, hous­ing, trad­ing in or us­ing ge­net­ic­ally mod­i­fied an­im­als;

d.

vi­ol­ates the reg­u­la­tions on the trans­port of an­im­als;

e.

vi­ol­ates the reg­u­la­tions on in­ter­ven­tions in­volving an­im­als or an­im­al ex­per­i­ments;

f.

vi­ol­ates the reg­u­la­tions on the slaughter of an­im­als;

g.

per­forms oth­er acts on an­im­als that are for­bid­den by this Act or the Or­din­ance;

h.³⁹

trades in an­im­als in con­tra­ven­tion of the reg­u­la­tions;

i.⁴⁰

uses liv­ing an­im­als for ad­vert­ising in con­tra­ven­tion of the reg­u­la­tions.

² At­tempts, com­pli­city and in­cite­ment are also of­fences. If the of­fend­er has ac­ted through neg­li­gence, he or she is li­able to a fine.⁴¹

³ Any per­son who, wil­fully or through neg­li­gence, vi­ol­ates an im­ple­ment­a­tion pro­vi­sion, con­tra­ven­tion of which has been deemed to be an of­fence, or a rul­ing of which he or she has been no­ti­fied that car­ries the sanc­tions provided for in this Art­icle is li­able to a fine.⁴²

The stat­ute of lim­it­a­tions is five years for the pro­sec­u­tion of con­tra­ven­tions and four years for the pen­al­ties for con­tra­ven­tions.

Art­icle 6 of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974⁴³ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law ap­plies.

¹ The pro­sec­u­tion and ad­ju­dic­a­tion of of­fences is a mat­ter for the can­tons.

² The FS­VO shall in­vest­ig­ate and judge con­tra­ven­tions as defined in Art­icle 27 para­graph 2 that come to light in the con­text of the im­port, trans­it or ex­port of an­im­als and an­im­al products at the au­thor­ised bor­der in­spec­tion points. If, at the same time, there has been a con­tra­ven­tion of the Cus­toms Act of 18 March 2005⁴⁵ or the Value Ad­ded Tax Act of 12 June 2009⁴⁶, the Fed­er­al Of­fice for Cus­toms and Bor­der Se­cur­ity (FO­CBS) shall in­vest­ig­ate and judge the con­tra­ven­tions.⁴⁷

³ If, in the im­port, trans­it or ex­port of an­im­als and an­im­al products out­side of the au­thor­ised bor­der in­spec­tion points, there is at the same time a con­tra­ven­tion of the Cus­toms Act of 18 March 2005 or the Value Ad­ded Tax Act of 12 June 2009, the FO­CBS shall in­vest­ig­ate and judge the con­tra­ven­tions.⁴⁸

⁴ If any con­tra­ven­tion as defined in para­graph 1, 2 or 3 sim­ul­tan­eously con­sti­tutes a con­tra­ven­tion to be pro­sec­uted by the same fed­er­al au­thor­ity un­der the Fed­er­al Act of 16 March 2012⁴⁹ on Trade in Pro­tec­ted An­im­al and Plant Spe­cies, the Cus­toms Act of 18 March 2005, the Value Ad­ded Tax Act of 12 June 2009, the Food­stuffs Act of 20 June 2014⁵⁰, the Epi­zo­ot­ic Dis­eases Act of 1 Ju­ly 1966⁵¹, the Hunt­ing Act of 20 June 1986⁵² or the Fed­er­al Act of 21 June 1991⁵³ on Fish­ing, then the pen­alty for the most ser­i­ous con­tra­ven­tion ap­plies; it may be in­creased com­men­sur­ately.⁵⁴

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue en­force­ment reg­u­la­tions. It may au­thor­ise the FS­VO to is­sue im­ple­ment­ing reg­u­la­tions of a tech­nic­al nature.⁵⁵

² En­force­ment is the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the can­tons un­less the law stip­u­lates oth­er­wise. They may re­gion­al­ise en­force­ment.

^2bis The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­quire the can­tons to in­form the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment of en­force­ment meas­ures and the out­come of in­spec­tions and in­vest­ig­a­tions.⁵⁶

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the ex­tent to which an­im­al hous­ing fa­cil­it­ies must be in­spec­ted and how the con­duct of an­im­al ex­per­i­ments must be mon­itored. The in­spec­tion of an­im­al hous­ing units and cor­res­pond­ing data gath­er­ing must be co­ordin­ated with the in­spec­tions that are re­quired un­der the le­gis­la­tion on ag­ri­cul­ture, epi­zo­ot­ic dis­eases and food­stuffs.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion and train­ing of per­sons who per­form tasks con­nec­ted with the en­force­ment of this Act.⁵⁷

⁵ Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the au­thor­isa­tion pro­ced­ure un­der Art­icle 7 para­graph 2 and the mon­it­or­ing of the im­port, trans­it and ex­port of an­im­als and an­im­al products at the au­thor­ised bor­der in­spec­tion points are the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment.⁵⁸

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may con­clude in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies re­lat­ing to train­ing, the per­form­ance of in­spec­tions and the ex­change of in­form­a­tion re­lat­ing to an­im­al wel­fare.

¹ De­cisions made by the FS­VO may be con­tested by fil­ing op­pos­i­tion.

² The sus­pens­ive ef­fect of op­pos­i­tion may be re­voked.

³ Op­pos­i­tion must be filed with­in 10 days of no­ti­fic­a­tion of the de­cision.

Each can­ton must set up a tech­nic­al of­fice for which the can­ton­al veter­in­ary of­ficer is re­spons­ible and which is suit­able for en­sur­ing that this Act and the reg­u­la­tions is­sued on the basis here­of are en­forced.

¹ Each can­ton shall ap­point a com­mit­tee of ex­perts for an­im­al ex­per­i­ments which is in­de­pend­ent of the au­thor­isa­tion au­thor­ity and in which the an­im­al wel­fare or­gan­isa­tions are ap­pro­pri­ately rep­res­en­ted. Two or more can­tons may ap­point a joint com­mit­tee.

² The com­mit­tee re­views ap­plic­a­tions and makes a sub­mis­sion to the au­thor­isa­tion au­thor­ity. It shall be con­sul­ted on the in­spec­tion of labor­at­ory an­im­al fa­cil­it­ies and the con­duct of ex­per­i­ments. The can­tons may en­trust fur­ther du­ties to the com­mit­tee.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall ap­point a com­mit­tee of ex­perts for an­im­al ex­per­i­ments. It shall ad­vise the FS­VO and make it­self avail­able to the can­tons for ques­tions of a fun­da­ment­al nature and con­tro­ver­sial cases.⁶¹

² The Fed­er­al Com­mit­tee on An­im­al Ex­per­i­ments shall co­oper­ate with the Fed­er­al Eth­ics Com­mit­tee on Non-Hu­man Bi­o­tech­no­logy.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may ap­point ex­am­in­a­tion boards to carry out ex­am­in­a­tions of per­sons who per­form tasks con­nec­ted with the en­force­ment of this Act.

² The ex­am­in­a­tion boards pub­lish the res­ults of ex­am­in­a­tions in the form of a de­cision.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may del­eg­ate the per­form­ance of ex­am­in­a­tions to the can­tons.

The FS­VO shall pub­lish an­nu­al stat­ist­ics on all an­im­al ex­per­i­ments con­duc­ted in Switzer­land.⁶³ It shall in­form the pub­lic about is­sues con­cern­ing an­im­al ex­per­i­ments and ge­net­ic modi­fic­a­tions in an­im­als.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may con­clude agree­ments with the can­tons on ob­ject­ives for the en­force­ment of parts of this Act.

¹ The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment and can­tons may con­sult or­gan­isa­tions and com­pan­ies on en­force­ment of the Act or may es­tab­lish or­gan­isa­tions suit­able for this pur­pose.

² They su­per­vise the co-de­term­in­a­tion of these or­gan­isa­tions and com­pan­ies. The du­ties and au­thor­ity as­signed to them must be defined in a mis­sion state­ment by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity. They must provide this au­thor­ity with de­tails of their busi­ness man­age­ment and ac­count­ing. The par­lia­ment­ary con­trol of fed­er­al and can­ton­al gov­ern­ment re­mains un­af­fected by this pro­vi­sion.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the can­tons may au­thor­ise the in­struc­ted or­gan­isa­tions and com­pan­ies to charge fees for their ser­vices.

The au­thor­it­ies in­struc­ted to en­force this Act shall have ac­cess to premises, fa­cil­it­ies, vehicles, ob­jects and an­im­als; in do­ing so, they act as an agency of the po­lice.

En­force­ment of this Act by the can­tons is su­per­vised on be­half of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment by the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Home Af­fairs.⁶⁴

¹ Un­less it stip­u­lates oth­er­wise, this Act is en­forced free of charge.

² The can­tons are au­thor­ised to levy fees for:

a.

au­thor­isa­tions and of­fi­cial de­cisions;

b.

in­spec­tions which have res­ul­ted in com­plaints;

c.

spe­cial ser­vices that re­quire more than the nor­mal amount of work.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall define the lim­its for can­ton­al fees.

¹ If this Act re­quires sup­ple­ment­a­tion by can­ton­al law for the pur­poses of im­ple­ment­a­tion, the can­tons are ob­liged to draw up the rel­ev­ant reg­u­la­tions.

² The can­tons shall no­ti­fy the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Home Af­fairs of the im­ple­ment­ing reg­u­la­tions.