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Swiss Voters Asked to Decide on Cows, Goats Keeping Horns

Swiss farmer Armin Capaul poses with one of his cows ahead of the nationwide vote on cow horns. 

Swiss farmer Armin Capaul poses with one of his cows ahead of the nationwide vote on cow horns. 

Photographer: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty images

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (JAMEY KEATEN)
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Cheseaux-Noreaz, Switzerland (AP) -- As a hollow cowbell echoes through a rolling, misty Swiss countryside, cattle herder Armin Capaul smiles and cracks wise about the feat he's pulled off: Using the country's system of direct democracy to force a vote on an issue dear to his life and livelihood — whether cows keep their horns.

The small-time cattle raiser in the Bernese regional village of Perrefitte is the unassuming if media-friendly mastermind behind a proposal, years in the making after a painstaking petition drive, that Swiss farmers should receive state compensation for letting cows and goats keep their horns.