Switzerland’s New Animal Product Labels 🇨🇭

Switzerland has just taken a step, albeit a small one, towards exposing the dark reality behind animal products. From July 1, flesh, ovulations, lactations, and even frog legs must now carry labels if they come from animals subjected to painful procedures without anaesthesia.

That means cow flesh from castrated or dehorned cows, pig flesh from pigs with docked tails or clipped teeth, eggs from debeaked hens, milk from dehorned cows, frog legs ripped off without sedation, and foie gras from force-fed ducks and geese (already banned in Switzerland, but still imported) must finally be marked for what they are: the byproducts of deliberate, systematic harm.

The Swiss Federal Council claims this change will empower consumers to make “informed” decisions and increase transparency across the food industry. But let’s not kid ourselves. No label can ever capture the true horror these individuals endure, the forced mutilations, the confinement, the betrayal of their most basic interests.

Yes, we do approve of this move. It is better to reveal injustice than to hide it. But it’s a bandage on a gaping wound. Labeling cruelty doesn’t stop cruelty, it just puts it in smaller print. These measures might nudge a handful of shoppers to pause and reconsider, but they do nothing to address the root problem: the mindset that other animals are resources, commodities, or property.

It’s not just about “painful procedures.” The entire system is a violation from start to finish. The breeding, the separation of mothers and babies, the genetic manipulation, the violent deaths, none of these can be justified by a different font on a supermarket shelf.

At the same time, Switzerland has announced a ban on importing fur products obtained through “animal cruelty,” and hinted at broader trade bans to come. Again, a positive signal, but one that stops well short of acknowledging that fur, flesh, milk, eggs, and skin all rely on the same core injustice: the idea that animals exist for human use.

We welcome these moves for what they are: small steps in the right direction. But let’s be clear, they are crumbs tossed to a public already starving for real change.

True progress doesn’t come from better packaging or softer language. It comes from rejecting the mindset that views animals as means to our ends. Until we stop breeding, using, and killing individuals for profit, no amount of labeling will make these industries “transparent” or “ethical.”

So yes, label the violence. Expose it. But don’t stop there. Let’s abolish it altogether.