Relevant animal-related judgments in administrative law

Relevant animal-related judgments in administrative law

The Global Animal Law GAL Association feels responsible to follow up the actual problems in the enforcement practice in a juridically correct way. In order that GAL could get an overview, requests for inspection of files were necessary in a multiplicity of decisions of all instances - which were involved in the administrative execution of the animal protection law - of the last three years. Many cantons granted the Global Animal Law GAL Association access to their files on the subject of "official intervention" and "prohibition of keeping animals". A collection of currently over 460 specific Swiss animal welfare cases in administrative law was created. GAL noted that there is currently no central database for the jurisdiction of the above mentioned animal protection cases in administrative law. The exchange of information or the so-called "administrative assistance" between different cantonal authorities is challenging and in most cases there is no information exchange between the cantonal authorities. For this reason, GAL started in 2019 to record all collected cases electronically and now intends to develop an electronic database.

Some of the decisions made available to GAL have already been commented on by us; the commentary on the remaining decisions will be based on the GAL team in 2020. The commentary covers the legal description of the core problem of each individual case and gives indications of what the enforcement authorities have to pay particular attention to. The main focus in the development of the "GAL enforcement database" is the support and improvement of the efficiency of the veterinary and other involved authorities and courts. The aim of GAL is to provide simple and case-related information on legally binding decisions in Switzerland, so that "good", coordinated and, not least, animal welfare-compliant verdicts can be achieved. In addition, the veterinary profession also benefits from the "GAL enforcement database", because they are subject to the legal reporting of dog bite incidents and can therefore access the authorities and court practice.

Since it is GAL's intention to create the database together with the future main users, the next step will be the presentation of a so-called Clickable Dummy in form of a schematic mini-prototype. According to the numerous cantonal veterinarians cooperating with GAL, the "GAL enforcement database" is explicitly "useful and worthy of support". The planned go-live date has been postponed for time and financial reasons and has now been set for May 2022.

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