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The pet database “Anis” blocks access for the authorities. Police and pet owners are taken by surprise.
A Zurich cat owner only found out about it by accident – and was surprised: since the beginning of February, the police have not been able to get her name and telephone number so easily if something happens to one of her three cats.
That’s exactly why she chipped them back then and added them to the pet database «anise» Register – for around CHF 140 per cat: so that the owner can be informed as quickly as possible if one of their animals is injured or has an accident.
Over 600,000 cats are registered with «Anis», along with a number of other pets such as rabbits, parrots, guinea pigs and turtles.
No direct notification possible
A direct notification is now no longer possible, in any case not as quickly. “The community workers who collect the dead animals and bring them to the carcass site no longer have access,” says the cat owner. And even the police who go out when an injured or dead animal is reported to them can no longer see who the animal belongs to.
Customer not informed of restriction
In fact, at the beginning of February, “Anis” blocked access to the contact details of pet owners for the police, cantonal and municipal veterinary offices. “For data protection reasons”, as it says in “Anis”. The customers were not informed about the deterioration.
Police have to call the hotline – during office hours
The Zurich cat owner is explained to “Anis” that the police must now call the “Anis” support hotline, only then would the name and telephone number of an animal owner be known. And that’s during office hours, from Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Outside office hours, the authorities would have to contact a veterinarian or an animal shelter, which would still have access. Whether someone always picks up the phone there at the weekend or at night is an open question.
The police are not happy
The cantonal police forces are surprised by the hit-and-run exercise by the database operator “Anis”. The cantonal police in St. Gallen regret the step: “Until now, it was a good service that the police provided to the owners of cats,” explains spokesman Hanspeter Krüsi.
The Lucerne cantonal police are also unhappy with this step. The new detour via the hotline or the vet means more stress for the animal and more work for the police.
“Anise” wants to reverse the decision
At the request of the SRF consumer magazine “Espresso”, Fabienne Reinhard from Identitas AG, which operates the pet database “Anis”, said that this decision was not made on behalf of a data protection officer: “We have fundamentally committed ourselves to data protection and have here in the interests of the individual Animal owners act.”
The customers were not informed because “Anis” could not reach them so easily at the moment. Amazing for a company that collects contact details from their customers. Nevertheless, the database operator now wants to know about the books: “Anis” wants to contact various cantonal police and “find a solution”. The authorities should have access to “Anis” again by the end of March.
Incidentally, the national dog database “Amicus”, which is obligatory for dog owners, is not affected by this blocking.