Yes, our Swiss cows want to belong, so say “Yes” to cows having horns to make them feel better.

That is the translation of the poster on our local road. Below in smaller letters “Yes to the Horn initiative on 25th November 2018”

Yes the Swiss are voting again, not unusual. We have referendums every 3-4 months. On 25th November our votes again will be cast and top of the list is the endeavour to make our cows belong to the universal communal cow tribes and to keep their horns. Are there any other countries where the horns stubs are removed from the heads of little baby calves by an electric burner before the little calves even realise that they might one day have horns?

I am not usually very political, but in this case a Swiss farmer in the alps has collected enough signatures to bring this issue to the vote. Today I received the official notification from the goverment. The booklet says the following.

“The People’s initiative for the dignity of the agricultural Animals (Cow Horn Initiative)

NO: The Swiss government and Parliament find the Initiative would do more harm than good. If it is accepted more barns must be built  where the cows must be tied up because if the cows have horns it simplifies their attitude. Cows with horns increase the danger of injury.

YES: The Initiative wants more farmers to let their cows and goats keep their horns. As this means that the farmers must work more, the country should support this with more financial help. In this case the animal world would be more in the centre.”

That is a rough translation of the official document, so what do we do. We have already voted by post and due to my forceful advice, I made sure that our family are voting for the cows to keep their horns. Yesterday I had a discussion with No. 2 son who finds we have worse problems to deal with, such as climate change etc. Of course he is right, but the cow problem can now be solved. According to the statistics it will be a very tight vote with 47% for the cows to keep the horns and 49% to have them removed. There is still a small percent of undecided.

I know this is of no interest of the all the people here, as probably it is does not come into the question because you probably have happy cows with horns. But look at the two cows on the poster, they are happy cows. It has never bee proven that the little calves have no pain by removing the horns. I am not a vegetarian and I like a good steak or beef stew, but let them live with their horns until their time has come. Wenn irgend eine Schweizer liest diese Wörter, denn Ihr wisst was zu machen ist. Wir wollen glücklicher Kühe. Entschuldigen Grammatikfehler.

I took this photo a couple of weeks ago in our village, the only cow herd we have with horns, all the others are hornless. Let our cows belong.

FOWC with Fandango: Belong