Well, actually, the owner has been ordered to keep the cows quiet by removing their bells at night. Neighbors in his small town in the Zurich-Oberland area complained that the 27 cows were keeping them from sleeping at night.
The conflict has been going on for about four years, and has attracted national attention; this week’s decision turned down the farmer’s appeal of a November 2014 decision. The cows normally wear bells while in mountain pasture to make it possible to locate them, and the neighbors claimed that they were unnecessary when safely in the cowsheds.
The farmer rebutted the idea, claiming that the cows might escape, and the bells would be needed to locate them. The story may not be over: he is planning to appeal to an administrative court and if necessary Switzerland’s supreme court.
