As Of Today, Only Swiss Animals Living In Zurich Have Legal Representation

Yesterday the people of Switzerland overwhelmingly defeated a bill that wold have assigned 25 more public attorneys  to represent abused animals in court matters.    If passed, it would have extended a service presently provided by just one attorney in Zurich -- Antoine Goetschel.
 
And, although most of Mr. Goetschel's clients are dogs, he recently caught international attention representing a 22-pound pike who was caught in Lake Zurich and then eaten by a man who then boasted to his local paper over how the pike was caught in icy storm-swollen waters last February.    Although fishing is not considered cruelty to animals, the fact that it took over 10 minutes to bring in this pike is considered cruelty and was backed by an earlier court precedent in Germany that ruled anything over one minute is too long.   Mr. Goetschel defended his actions in representing the pike by conjecturing how people would have felt if a puppy had been dangled by a hook for 10 minutes?  And by citing that farm animals in Switzerland are protected by a strict, legally enforceable time limit between capture and death -- so why not fish? 

This is one of those stories that on first reading sounds incredibly absurd.  Yet, when given more consideration sounds more rational.  I often wonder who truly does speak for animals in our culture -- and more specifically for cats?  In the U.S., cats are legally viewed as property and fall within the bailiwick of county governments through their direct animal control officers or indirectly through their contracts with humane societies and aspcas's.  Yet these agencies for the most part have their roots in animal "control" not "protection".  And -- sadly -- are the very organizations are the leading cause of death of cats -- euthanizing them with little or no accountability for their actions -- to the cats or to the community.

Perhaps there is a role for public defenders with animals rights issues -- and it's part of the logical extension of our current vision of cats and dog as "family members" not "animals" per se.    We can't have it both ways forever -- you can't think of your dog or cat as one of the family and continue to legally view them as property -- with no legal rights to life and happiness.    The vote failed yestereday in Switzerland but we can be sure -- the issue will come to  votes again both there and everywhere else -- it's just a matter of time.