Armin Capaul

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Armin Capaul (born 1951 in Lumbrein ) is a Swiss mountain farmer and the initiator of the horned cow initiative .

Life

Capaul was born in Lumbrein and grew up with his grandparents in Ilanz . His parents had to give up their farm and moved to Zurich to look for work there. At the age of six, Capaul followed them and went to school in Zurich. As a child, he mostly spent his holidays on a farm in Meggen (so-called “ holiday care ”). When he was 15 years old, he dropped out of school and moved out of home. He began an apprenticeship as a farmer on a farm in Zurich Seebach and attended the Plantahof agricultural school in Landquart . Shortly before graduating, however, he left the farm to take part in demonstrations in the context of the globe riots. At the urging of his teacher, however, he still took the final exam and passed it. After taking part in political campaigns as part of the 1968 movement for a short time , he moved to Chur . There he took on jobs as a self-employed person for various maintenance work, which he himself referred to as the "Heinzelmännli company". At the same time, he completed internships that he needed to obtain a degree as a qualified farmer in 1974. In 1978 he met his future wife while working in Signina . After spending two summers with her on the Alp, they leased a farm in Guggisberg and later in Trans GR . In 1995 they moved to the Valengiron farm above Perrefitte , which they were able to buy from Oerlikon-Bührle in 1996 . With his wife, Capaul has two sons and a daughter. At the beginning of 2017, he handed over his farm to one of his sons, as people over 65 do not receive any direct payments in Switzerland . In the 2019 National Council elections he will run as a non-party .

Commitment to horned cows

Before the popular initiative

On December 6, 2010, Capaul and a professional colleague wrote a letter to the Federal Office for Agriculture in which they suggested supporting farmers who do not dehorn their cattle with a subsidy in the form of one franc per day per year (goats: 20 cents) , the so-called «horned franc». However, the FOAG rejected this proposal. In March 2012, Capaul sent an email to all members of the Federal Assembly with the same request. In September of the same year the Green Louis Schelbert submitted a proposal for the horned franc in the National Council , in December Roberto Zanetti did the same in the Council of States . However, both chambers rejected the respective applications. On December 6, 2013, Capaul and the IG Hornkuh, founded in 2012, submitted a petition to the Federal Chancellery (addressed to Federal Councilor and Agriculture Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann ) with 18,000 signatures. It called for the Federal Council to issue an ordinance on the creation of the horned franc. However, the Federal Council did not comply with this request. After Capaul made further contact in August 2014, in which he also brought a possible federal popular initiative into play, Schneider-Ammann replied that the Federal Council could not issue the ordinance if the matter had previously failed in parliament.

Popular initiative

On September 9, 2014, Capaul began collecting signatures for a popular initiative. The constitutional amendment sought by the initiative contains the provision that the federal government ensures that keepers of cows, breeding bulls, goats and breeding billy goats receive financial support as long as the adult animals have horns. Capaul worked out the formulation of the initiative himself, with the support of the Federal Chancellery in choosing the exact wording and in the translations into the other national languages . Capaul collected around 50,000 of the signatures himself. Approx. 51,000 were collected by professional signature collectors paid by Capaul and around 20,000 signatures were sent by post. After the initiative came about in March 2016, 120,130 signatures were submitted, of which 119,626 were valid. Capaul said of the initiative that he never really wanted it, but it was the only way to do something for the animals.

Referendum

In the referendum on November 25, 2018, 45.3% and five estates (cantons) voted for Capaul's initiative, which meant that it did not find a majority.

reception

Capaul received international attention as part of his commitment to horned cows. Several thousand press articles deal with him and the Hornkuh initiative. In many press articles, Capaul was referred to as the "horny cow rebel". The show Re: the television channel Arte shone on October 5, 2018, half-hour documentary about Capaul entitled The dignity of the cow - A Swiss fighting for cattle with horns , produced by SWR , made in German and French. The WOZ editor David Hunziker published a book with the AT Verlag with the title Kuhhorn: The dignity of the cow and the limits of industrial agriculture. The incredible story of Armin Capaul and his horned cow initiative.

literature

  • David Hunziker: Kuhhorn: The dignity of the cow and the limits of industrial agriculture. The incredible story of Armin Capaul and his horned cow initiative . AT Verlag , Aarau 2018, ISBN 978-3-03800-997-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Yvonne Vogel: We want to give the cows back their dignity . In: animal world. November 27, 2014, accessed November 2, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c Yaël Debelle: A heart for cows and their horns . In: Observer . March 7, 2016, accessed November 2, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Nadine Jürgensen: The horned cow rebel . In: NZZ . May 13, 2016, accessed November 2, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b c d Curdin à Porta: Armin Capaul: "I'm not just any weirdo" . In: BauernZeitung. March 6, 2017, accessed November 2, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Markus Schütz: The Alp as a place of counterculture . November 4, 2010, accessed November 2, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Lotti Teuscher: A farmer fights for the horn . In: Berner Zeitung . March 22, 2016, accessed November 2, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Armin Capaul wants to join the National Council. In: Berner Zeitung . September 12, 2019, accessed September 26, 2019 .
  8. ^ A b c d e f Sibilla Bondolfi: Bergbauer creates a grassroots democracy miracle . In: Swissinfo . March 26, 2016, accessed November 2, 2018 .
  9. ↑ a b c d Angelika Hardegger: How the horned cow got to the urns . In: NZZ . October 12, 2018, accessed November 2, 2018 .
  10. ↑ a b Hornkuh initiative comes before the people . In: NZZ . April 15, 2016, accessed November 2, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Federal resolution on the popular initiative "For the dignity of farm animals (horned cow initiative)". In: Admin.ch . Retrieved November 2, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Ivan Santoro: Cows would have horns . In: SRF . October 2, 2018, accessed November 3, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Angelika Hardegger: Armin Capaul wants to keep fighting. In: NZZ , November 25, 2018.
  14. ↑ a b c Carole Koch: mountain farmer, hippie, horned cow rebel: The Armin Capaul phenomenon . In: NZZ am Sonntag . October 20, 2018, accessed November 2, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Yann Schlegel: Famous for the sake of the cows: How the mountain farmer Armin Capaul became a media star . In: Aargauer Zeitung . October 3, 2018, accessed November 2, 2018 .
  16. ↑ The Horned Cow Rebel . ARD , October 3, 2018, accessed on October 22, 2017 .
  17. ↑ This is the man behind the "Horny Cow Initiative" . In: Bluewin . October 5, 2018, accessed November 2, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Re: The dignity of the cow - A Swiss fights for cattle with horns . In: Arte .tv. October 5, 2018, accessed November 2, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Capaul, Armin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss mountain farmer and the initiator of the horned cow initiative
DATE OF BIRTH 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Lumbar clean