Reptiles and the law in Switzerland
Four questions decide whether an animal can move in: does it need a permit? Is it allowed at all? Does buying it require papers? And if none of that applies: What still holds? The answer for every single species is here.
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Species of 93
Which reptiles may be kept in Switzerland without a permit?
Most of them. Article 89 of the Animal Welfare Ordinance lists exhaustively which wild animals require a permit. Anything not listed there may be kept without one.
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Species of 93
Which reptiles require a permit in Switzerland?
For venomous snakes unless the FSVO lists them as harmless, giant snakes over three metres (except the boa constrictor), all chameleons, crocodilians, beaded lizards, iguanas, tegus and monitors over one metre, a few other lizards, tortoises and turtles such as the African spurred tortoise, and the Goliath frog and giant salamanders. Article 89 of the Animal Welfare Ordinance lists them.
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Species of 93
Which reptiles and amphibians are banned in Switzerland?
The Animal Welfare Ordinance bans no species. Two are listed as invasive organisms in the Release Ordinance, though: the red-eared slider and the American bullfrog. They must not get into the environment: no releasing, no garden pond, no keeping outdoors. The FOEN (Federal Office for the Environment) also considers acquisition and keeping impermissible.
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Species of 93
Which reptiles need CITES papers in Switzerland?
Every species listed in the appendices of the Washington Convention (CITES). That is considerably more than most people expect. Widely kept terrarium animals are among them.
Where these classifications come from
Every species carries its own legal profile in the app: Permit requirement, certificate of competence, protection status, minimum dimensions. These overviews simply group those profiles. What appears here in a list appears word for word on the species page and in the app’s profile.
A species can appear in more than one list. Permit-free and protected at the same time is the most common case. The two bodies of rules have nothing to do with each other: one protects the individual animal in captivity, the other protects the species’ populations from trade.
Binding information comes from the cantonal veterinary office. These pages do not replace it: They tell you which question you need to ask.
The rules behind them (articles, responsibilities and what a certificate of competence is) are on Switzerland & law. The individual species pages are under Species.
