A hundred and twenty-two dogs put down in Ramiswil, animal charity files complaint

Swiss Animal Protection has filed a criminal complaint against the cantonal veterinarian of Solothurn and the head of the cantonal agriculture office over the way the clearance of a farm in Ramiswil was handled.

The operation took place on 6 November 2025 at the property of a 57-year-old woman. A hundred and twenty-two dogs were put down. Forty-three horses were seized, thirty-two of them later auctioned. Two goats were also taken.

The disputed point concerns how the decision was reached. Ninety-nine dogs had been identified as livestock guardian dogs, a category for which rehoming is genuinely difficult. That leaves twenty-three animals which, according to the association, were not individually assessed before being killed. "It seems to me they killed for convenience," said the association's president, Peter V. Kunz.

Two parallel proceedings

Criminal proceedings against the farm's owner had already been opened by the Solothurn authorities over the treatment of the animals. The complaint now opens a second front, this time concerning the conduct of the cantonal veterinary services during and after the operation.

The federal animal welfare act gives the cantonal veterinarian the power to order seizure and, where compliant keeping cannot be guaranteed, destruction. The law does not, however, set a uniform triage procedure for operations of this size, and judging whether rehoming is feasible remains largely discretionary.

Cases of animal hoarding occur regularly in every canton, with numbers ranging from a few dozen to several hundred animals. The main difficulty is not the intervention itself but the availability of facilities able to take in large numbers of animals needing care at the same time and, in the case of guardian dogs, a very specific setting.