They say every dog has its day - and in Switzerland every dog may soon be able to have its day in court.








The country is holding a referendum on whether animals that have been mistreated can be legally represented.


Pets and livestock in the canton of Zurich can already have lawyers and voters will decide today whether to apply the legislation across the rest of the nation.


more here

Ha. Awesome.

"The jury decided unanimously that Buster did indeed steal Twiddle's bone. He was sentenced to 30 hours community service. This will be carried out in Zermatt. He will sit there posing for photographs with tourists with a barrel of rum around his neck".

I've got a muzzle order against the neighbor's gerbil, my career and private lives would be toast if that little rodent gets an attorney and relives our exploits from Wednesday night a week ago.

I voted no. Switzerland has good laws already.

Addition: I'm from Kanton Schwyz and we usually vote "no" to everything.

Based on today, the pecking order for the Swiss:

- Myself
- Family
- Other Swiss
- Dogs
- Foreigners

Cheers,
Nick

I would have it

-Myself/wife/family
-Dogs
-Everyone else

Hahaha awesome. Only in Europe!! And thats why we love it!!!

well i actually voted yes to that article coz its not meant only for dog and cats......

For example we had a farmer in a nearby village that was overworked and instead of calling for help( which he eventually got by othe rfarmers after the story got public) he let his cows sort of rot away in the stables and a few other bad things relating to animals on his farm.

With an animal lawyer joe public can for example bring stuff like that to attention and do a little more for animal rights than the plain normal Tierschutz can not as they have not much legal power.....it's just that stuff like that can now be dealt with legally as well and the offender gets his animals taken away and has to pay a ( hopefully) hefty fine ...i may put my foot in my mouth here......but those who mistreat their animals and there are a lot out there sadly.....will now have to think differently about how they treat their animals and they can be brought to justice!!!

I am all for it ,even more so , since i have my dog,which was a feral dog in Greece and has been rescued....she's a got a really big bald patch in her fur from when someone threw acid over her to shoo her away......and stuff like that happens here as well......but in typical swiss style on the sly in a way!!!

that makes more sense then, it seems to me it's going to be a bit like the RSPCA in the UK - they step in when animal cruelty is reported and they can then push for people to be prosecuted

Yep and from what i gathered when watching BBC 1 or 2 and the RSPCA is featured it has had much more rights in that regard than our Tierschutz had......those against it said that we already have good animal laws now......yes we do.....but no good means to bring 'perpetrators' to justice.

Around 70% voted NO.

The animal protecting acts protect the animal well enough. But anyone can ask himself if he should eat meat or leave the dog al day at home without being exerciced.

I will continue to eat meat, and I will continue to support the protection of the rights of animals

I voted NO, that does not mean i am against animal protection. A lawyer in Zürich took a hobby fisherman to court because he needed 2minutes pulling it to the land.
I think this is realy not necessery while stil meat is imported and live anymal transport is normal in the most european countries.

The way I read the referendum proposal was that it sought equality how animal rights were handled across all 26 cantons. The current state of play is very much dependent upon who does what where, rather than the what the animals have had to endure as being the primary issue. The ZH angling case was media hype, but take a look at some of the more realistic cases of poor cattle treatment in Thurgau where the farmers were being judged by "experts" who were their best buddies rather than casting a critical appraisal of poor farmyard conditions. How this system will continue in the future is now as open as it ever was; which is why I voted yes. I'm not a great big animal lover, but I have a problem with the arrogance and cruelty certain humans have towards other living souls on this earth.

haha, I best be nicer to my dog in case he gets any ideas...

Yes, Switzerland does have good laws, but they need to be applied more vigorously as far as animals are concerned!

There was no benefit to anyone voting no Sunday. This wasn't going to necessarily cost anyone a buck more to look after animal rights if there had been a yes. The no vote was pure laziness and I would imagine an issue that most Swiss voters felt apathy towards. We had a few flyers stuck through the door from the local animal centers, but otherwise it was an anonymous referendum campaign.

Anybody got a copy of the film "Hour of the Pig"?

No, but I recall the "Hitchhiker's Guide" movie and humans were ranked below mice in the evolutionary scale.

Read the book. Mice were below dolphins, "so long and thanks for all the fish". The answer is 42, but unless you know what the question is, it don't mean much, do it?