SWISS'S COW HORNS SAVINGS

IN LATEST quirky Swiss poll, voters asked to save cow horns.......

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.

Proponents of the measure being voted on in a national referendum ending Sunday say the animals should be left the way the nature intended, for their well-being and happiness..

Opponents, like a key federation of cattle raisers, say the measure would cost too much and drain funds from other activities.

Polls suggest neck-and-neck race after parliament expressed its opposition and support has eroded in recent weeks. The issue strikes an emblem of Swiss identity.

In an Alpine country proud of its cheese, milk and chocolate, cows are elevated in the public psyche as a symbol of Swiss-ness.

Images of cows are a staple of Swiss souvenirs, and cows regularly feature in cheeky TV ads : one recently showed a doctored image of one of the sour legged beats kicking a ball with a star of the national soccer team.

The Swiss executive branch and parliament have - braving some potential backlash - come out against the proposal, insisting that it would cost too much.

The issue has become a part of a media spectacle internationally, in part because Capaul fits-the stereotypical image of what a small-time Swiss cattle raiser might be, not unlike the grandfather in the Swiss children's classic Heidi :

He wears an unkempt gray beard and matching hair, and often sports a plaid shirt, tasseled wood cap , or sweater that loosely hangs off the shoulder as prods, pulls, pets and pampers his herd.

The impact of the issue is more spectacle than substance. Three-fourths of cows raised in Switzerland don't have horns, and many are born naturally without them. [Agencies].