Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

‘Surprisingly few’ signatures invalid for ban on animal testing

Only a few invalid signatures for a ban on animal testing
Only a few invalid signatures for a ban on animal testing Keystone-SDA

The initiative to ban animal testing was submitted in November with around 127,600 signatures. Following a scandal about signature collection, "surprisingly few" signatures are not valid, the initiative's organisers have now said, based on figures from the Federal Chancellery.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

According to the Federal Chancellery, only 217 signatures were invalid. This low figure is surprising, wrote Renato Werndli, president of the IG Tierversuchsverbotsinitiative (initiative to ban animal testing), on Monday.

Werndli wrote that the organisation had collaborated with a number of companies suspected of forging signatures. The proportion of invalid signatures for the animal testing ban is lower than for other petitions.

Allegedly forged signatures for popular initiatives, collected for money by companies, made headlines in 2024. Two criminal charges are pending.

+ ‘Signatures scam’ reveals cracks in Swiss system

The government spoke out against a ban on paid collections. However, the Federal Chancellery set up a round table.

Its aim is to develop a code of conduct. Among the participants was the IG Tierversuchsverbotsinitiative. The Social Democratic Party and the farmers’ association, on the other hand, left the round table in December because they are calling for a ban on commercial signature collections.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR