Regulatory objection – Christian Stricker, FOAG

 

Christian Stricker, Head of the Animal Products and Animal Breeding Division, is refusing to grant authorisation to carry out horse breeding in accordance with the guidelines set out in the Animal Breeding/Horse Breeding Ordinance, which comes into force on 1 January 2026, on flimsy – and shabby – grounds.

The completely revised Animal Breeding Ordinance, intended as a renewal [aimed at] regeneration, has failed

⇒ due to regulatory inconsistencies.

Regulatory contradiction! (⊛Term 1)

⇒ At the FOAG – Federal Office for Agriculture – there is a ‘chaos’*: Christian Stricker as Head of Division for Animal Products and Animal Breeding, for life.

Chaot = one who attempts to destroy the existing social order…

⇒ A regulatory contradiction exists when two legal bases, e.g. the superseded Animal Breeding Ordinance from 2012 and the new Ordinance that came into force on 1 January 2026, simultaneously claim to apply to the same set of facts, even though their content contradicts each other – they are mutually exclusive.

⇒ This makes it impossible to apply the law in a uniform and legally compliant manner!

⇒ In the present case, Mr Stricker continues to require that applications for recognition as a breeding organisation be submitted in accordance with the Animal Breeding Ordinance of 31 October 2012 (SR 916.310), whereas, since 1 January 2026 – following the completely revised Horse Breeding Ordinance and Agricultural Policy AP22+ – the 2026 version of the Animal Breeding Ordinance has been in force.

⇒ Two sets of regulations with differing content are being treated as authoritative at the same time – this is the contradiction that Mr Stricker is practising: he refuses recognition, yet demands it in the knowledge that no applicant can fulfil this requirement. ‘Link: Application for recognition…’

⇒ Two principles are legally relevant here: the rule ‘lex posterior derogat legi priori’ – the later law takes precedence over the earlier law – and the principle of legality under Article 5 of the Federal Constitution, according to which an authority must base its actions on the currently applicable legal basis

⇒ Not on a version superseded by new legislation.

⇒ Conduct suspected of corruption is also evident in the behaviour, application and willingness to implement the provisions of Ordinance AP22+ by the FOAG.

⇒ In Mr Stricker’s view, there is no umbrella organisation for the three breeding organisations within the three organisations maintaining the original Haflinger stud books. (⊛Term 2)

⇒ No divisions or sections: for Mr Stricker, the breed’s ‘Certificate of Origin’ is [merely] a pedigree document. (⊛Term 3)

⇒ The open studbook systems of the organisations of origin, A.N.A.C.R.HA.I. and FN, as opposed to the closed studbook system of HPT, preclude the mutual registration of breeding animals.

⇒ The Universal Equine Life Number 756-018, issued by the Animal Movement Database/Identitas AG, is not a valid life number that indicates the animal’s origin and affiliation to the studbook – as confirmed by the recognition of the alphanumeric UHLN (Universal Haflinger Life Number) in the UELN (Universal Equine Life Number) system. (⊛Term 4)

⇒ The distinction between ‘pet’ and ‘livestock’ exists only in the terminology coined by Niklaus Neuenschwander in Switzerland; nowhere else in the world. A green label to prevent the slaughter of foals in their first year of life would have the same effect as the yellow label designating a foal as a pet, which a foal can never be. (⊛Term 5)

⇒ The failure to apply – the obstruction of the implementation of the 2026 Animal Breeding Ordinance by Christian Stricker and his entourage – raises the question of jurisdiction over regulatory authority and its implementation. (⊛Term 6)

⇒ A ‘business as usual’ approach, adopted in application of the ambiguous interpretative theory of ‘regulatory contradiction’ (Term 7), necessitates clarification by the Head of Department, Guy Parmelin, and the Federal Council as a whole.

Glossary (marked with an asterisk ⊛ in the original)

1. Regulatory contradiction

2. Umbrella organisation

3. Certificate of Origin

4. UHLN – UELN

5. Pet declaration

6. Regulatory authority and its implementation

7. Ambiguous interpretation theory – ‘Regulatory contradiction’: a ‘business as usual’ approach, a thing of the past.

The die-hard traditionalists [and] know-it-alls.

Supplementary points

Term 2 – The sequence of terms up to and including the umbrella organisation: from breeder to breeding association, to breeding organisation, to umbrella organisation, to umbrella association – is to be included in the TZV (Animal Breeding Ordinance) 2026.

The breeding organisation [as a legal entity] with several organisations maintaining the original stud books for a breed – e.g. Haflinger – has the option of registering foals in 5 departments or sections for entry in the respective breeding register or mare book.

 

Haflinger-Pentagon Sàrl-GmbH
, represented by Hansruedi Vonlanthen