Animal protection activists have reached a referendum in Switzerland on whether there needs to be a ban on the import of foie gras and cruelty-produced fur products in the country. The animal protection organization Alliance Animale Suisse (AAS) announced this yesterday. This was preceded by a collection of signatures from the Swiss population by the activists: According to the initiators, 106,448 signatures were collected for a ban on foie gras and 116,140 for a ban on fur. This resulted in enough signatures to trigger a referendum. For a national vote, the required threshold is 100,000 signatures.
The AAS also points out that foie gras may not be produced in Switzerland, nor may animals be kept cruelly for fur products in Switzerland. “These products are not allowed to be manufactured in Switzerland, but are “imported en masse,” according to the AAS. With regard to fur, the AAS denounces “breeding and killing methods that clearly violate our animal protection legislation and would be considered cruelty punishable under criminal law in Switzerland.”
Since 2013, when fur is imported into Switzerland, it has been necessary to document where the fur comes from, but that is not enough for animal rights activists. Especially in China, where more than half of the fur comes from, the animals are kept captive and killed in “horrible conditions”.