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The Association |
Hansruedi Vonlanthen
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| |
The Association |
Hansruedi Vonlanthen
|
Current topic: Purebred horse breeding
⇒ Thoroughbred horse breeding in Switzerland faces a fresh start with the completely revised Animal Breeding Ordinance, which came into force on 1 January 2026.
⇒ The Federal Council generally supports the implementation of and compliance with the horse breeding regulations set out by the legislature as part of VP25.
⇒ The demands on breeding organisations are increasing.
⇒ Implementation is being undermined/made impossible by the FOAG.
⇒ Financial aid for breeding value assessments is being removed from the TVO (Animal Movement Ordinance) and replaced by financial aid for the recording and evaluation of breeding traits.
⇒ The latter is combined with the contributions for herd book keeping.
⇒ Funding is only available if a breeding organisation — e.g. for the ‘Haflinger’ horse breed — and the umbrella organisation — Haflinger-Pentagon Sàrl-GmbH — are active in both areas. (Source: Christian Stricker)
⇒ The legislature (the legislative branch of government) and the Federal Council as the executive branch (the executive branch of government) are of the view that the preservation of the Haflinger horse breed can be achieved ‘without further ado’ solely through the chosen evaluation scheme under the ‘breeding programme’, even with a single ‘trait’.
⇒ However, it must be ensured that this has an appropriate impact in the areas
of:- economic
efficiency
- product quality -
animal
health
-
animal welfare - resource efficiency - environmental impact - of the food system.
⇒ The breeding method – stud farm breeding – the ‘breeding programme’ of the organisation maintaining the original stud book (UZB), HPT – Haflinger Horse Breeding Association Tyrol – encompasses the diversity required of the Haflinger breed, which, outside the original stud book management, is to be divided into ‘sections’.
⇒ The stud book management – structure – division – subdivision: the organisational plan provides for two main sections, the closed and the open stud books
Open Stud Book
⇒ The umbrella organisation, Haflinger-Pentagon Sàrl-GmbH, issues a ‘Certificate of Origin’ for each department or section, confirming the horse’s origin and breed affiliation, and assigns the alphanumeric UELN (Universal Equine Life Number) upon the foal’s initial registration. This serves as identification and authorisation for applying for studbook entry, which may be made for the first time at the age of 3 years.
⇒ The ‘Certificate of Origin’ and the alphanumeric UELN guarantee the division or section from which the parents originate, or entry into the stud book division for stud farms and breeding = closed stud book records, and the sections with open stud book records, including entry into a register.
⇒ The umbrella organisation Haflinger-Pentagon Sàrl-GmbH claims to represent the diversity of breeders on the basis of international mutual breed affiliation.
⇒ Haflinger-Pentagon Sàrl-GmbH sees itself as the headquarters of Haflinger horse breeding. The breeding programme of the HPT (Haflinger Horse Breeding Association Tyrol).
⇒ The central task of an umbrella organisation is to ‘coordinate’ the diversity of breeding methods within the breed associations — to bring them together!
⇒ Swiss breed horse breeding = FM (Franches Montagnes) claims subsidies for breed conservation.
⇒ The Swiss Haflinger Association (SHV) — the butcher’s and baker’s shop — ‘founder, owner and keeper’ Christian Stricker — Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) — Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research — Head Guy Parmelin — Federal President in 2026, responsible for his federal employees.
⇒ No idea about:
‘Hay-flower soap’ — no wonder there are fewer and fewer farmers!
⇒ Farmhouse ham and farmhouse sausages are renowned as quality products. Yet slaughtering is becoming increasingly complicated. The likelihood of survival increasingly uncertain!
For example:
- Purebred horse breeding under the status of the farm animal and pet declaration.
- Only in Switzerland are horses also classified as pets.
- According to Christian Stricker, head of the Horse Breeding Ordinance within the completely revised Animal Rights Ordinance, commissioned by the entire Federal Council for exclusive exclusivity, only pets are welcome: excommunication, exclusion from the religious community of the hypocritical followers of a dirigiste self-serving regime.
Let us stick to the declaration on pets and farm animals.
With the realisation that only in Switzerland are horses to be regarded as pets.
⇒ The pet declaration is internationally nonsensical.
⇒ That is why the professional organisation, the Medical-Veterinary Society, is recommending to the Federal Council that the pet declaration be abolished. Will it succeed? It would be disastrous for the protection against foal slaughter.
⇒ An irrevocable ban on foal slaughter would no longer be possible.
⇒ As with the protection of dog puppies, protection for foals (a ban on foal slaughter) should also be possible, at least for yearlings.
⇒ The slaughter of foals, subsidised by horse meat importers, is too attractive to prevent foals that meet breeding standards from falling victim to the food strategy as livestock.
⇒ Demand for a complete revision of the Animal Breeding Ordinance: The practice of linking subsidies to food production requires correction.
⇒ Instead of pet stickers, green foal slaughter ban stickers must therefore be entered in the horse passport.
⇒ The Green Foal Protection Sticker enables the breeding farm to ensure that its foal is allowed to survive at least through its first year of life, as the ‘foal slaughter fund’ of horse meat importers can only be claimed for foals up to 12 months old.
⇒ When administering medicines that are difficult to metabolise, the farm veterinarian has the authority to prohibit meat processing by affixing a red sticker in the horse passport, thereby prohibiting meat processing for the horse’s entire lifetime.
⇒ A competent regulatory body is not feasible because there are other majorities.
⇒ The Majorz majority voting system: a majority is a majority, and the private consultancy firm’s approach to credit scoring, e.g. the Schufa score, is a step closer to the discrimination guidelines.
⇒ Everything with a future is being scaled back.
⇒ The connection between centres of power is growing ever stronger.
⇒ The fine saying ‘Together we are stronger’ contradicts the remark – ‘Alone we are strong, together we would get further’.
⇒ The original studbook-keeping organisations: HPT, with its closed studbook breeding programme, in contrast to the open studbook system of the original studbook organisations A.N.A.C.R.Ha.I. – Italy and the FN Germany, which employ outcrossing, maintain their herdbook entries as completely independent entities. An entry from the bottom up is excluded.
⇒ Therefore, the issuing of the ‘Certificate of Origin’ for each herd book is separate, distinct and individual, bearing the alphanumeric life number (UELN) valid for that section, which guarantees the possibility for the now 3-year-old horses to apply for stud book entry based on the value of their parents’ lineage.
⇒ The certificate of origin and affiliation to the section: Txx-Tha enables qualification as a ‘Thoroughbred Haflinger’ to belong to the stud book of origin for pure-bred, pure-bred horses, which in 2040 will be able to claim Thoroughbred status as the third breed, alongside the English and Arabian Thoroughbreds, without crossbreeding from 1920 onwards.
⇒ Haflinger-Swiss pur sang meets the requirement that the studbook, in cooperation with the original breeding register, HPT – Haflinger Horse Breeding Association Tyrol – can verify the pedigree of registered horses, proving their paternal and maternal origins.
⇒ The expansion of the gene pool, which makes it possible to meet this requirement, is the final step towards achieving pure-bred breeding in all neighbouring countries.