Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on March 8, 2010

Fishing in Zurich may become endangered if animal rights lawyers have their way

Over-the-top craziness from animal rights zealots in Switzerland to pay for government-appointed attorneys for animals “that can’t afford one”… betcha 10 to 1 that something this nutty will be launched soon in US courts, if it hasn’t already.

From KeytLaw: Swiss to Vote on Giving Animals Legal Rights, Including the Right to Have a Government Lawyer if the Animal Cannot Afford One

By Richard Keyt | March 6th, 2010

Tomorrow the citizens of Switzerland will vote on whether to give all Swiss animals increased legal rights, including the right to be represented by an attorney. I’m not kidding! Switzerland currently gives its animals more protections that perhaps any other country in the world. If the referendum passes, all of Switzerland’s cantons (territorial divisions of the country similar to a city or county) will be required to pay for lawyers to represent animals. Proponents of the new law say that if a person who has been accused of mistreating an animal is able to hire an attorney then the abused animal (the victim) should also be represented by a lawyer. Does that mean that if a Swiss dog bites and injures a person, can the injured victim sue the dog who would have a court appointed lawyer and if the victim prevails in court, would the dog be liable for damages that would then be paid by the Swiss government?

Here are some eye-popping current requirements of Swiss animal law:

* Before acquiring a dog, the prospective owner(s) must take a course on dogs that lasts four hours.
* If an animal breed is social, i.e., needs companionship, the owner(s) of that type of animal must also have at least other animal of the same type so that the animals will have a companion. Animals that must have companions include fish, birds and the ever popular yaks.
* Fish aquariums and cages for birds are required to have not less than one side that is opaque so that the fish or bird feels safe.
* You cannot simply kill a sick fish by throwing it in the trash or flushing it down the toilet, you must whack it with a killing head shot or poison it in water and clove oil dissolved in alcohol.
* Perps found guilty of cruelty to an animal can be sent to the big house for as much as three years.

Sanity prevailed, praise God — this news coming in:

From Associated Press, Swiss voters reject giving abused animals a lawyer:

GENEVA — The result was emphatic: Swiss voters don’t think abused animals need to have their own lawyers.

It’s a proposal that would never even come near a referendum in other countries, but the measure’s defeat Sunday disappointed animal rights advocates, who say Switzerland’s elaborate animal welfare laws aren’t being enforced.

Opponents of the proposal, including key farmers’ groups and the government, had argued that existing laws are sufficient and appointing special lawyers to act on behalf of animals would be unnecessarily expensive for taxpayers.

“The Swiss people have clearly said our animal protection laws are so good we don’t need animal lawyers,” Jakob Buechler, a lawmaker for the centrist Christian People’s Party, told Swiss television SF1.

Official results showed that 70.5 percent of voters cast their ballot against the proposal to extend nationwide a system that has been in place in Zurich since 1992. Some 29.5 percent of voters backed the proposal, with turnout at just over 45 percent.

Here’s one recent nutbar law case. A man fishing in Switzerland who landed a big pike was sued because the fish’s rights were supposedly violated.

From Associated Press, Legal eagles? Swiss to vote on lawyers for animals:

GENEVA — Lawyer Antoine F. Goetschel feels uncomfortable talking about one of his recent clients. And it isn’t just because he lost the case.

“Fish don’t get much sympathy,” he explains.

That’s doubly true for the unnamed dead pike whose cause Goetschel took up earlier this month, much to the amusement of Swiss anglers who couldn’t understand why one of their own was being hauled into court for landing a big catch.

Goetschel is Europe’s only animal lawyer and the figurehead for a movement that wants to expand Zurich’s pioneering legal system across Switzerland.

[...]

The debate took on a new dimension two weeks ago when prosecutors in the canton of Zurich accused an angler of having tortured a large pike, because the battle between man and beast took about 10 minutes.

Goetschel, in his capacity as the canton’s animal lawyer, was in court to represent the dead fish. He regrets that the case, which isn’t typical of his work, received so much attention.

“At least a lot of people who didn’t know what an animal lawyer is discovered that the job is about representing the interests of animals in court,” he says.

Asked why he represented the fish, Goetschel says, “It’s the same reason why a prosecutor goes after a murderer: to make sure that people are suitably punished for their crimes.“

Good grief.

Fishing isn’t a crime, fish aren’t “tortured,” but HUMANS ultimately will be if unscrupulous, ambulance-chasing lawyers (or “fishing-pole-attacking” lawyers, as in this case with Goetschel) prevail. This type of nonsense could later evolve to bugs being represented in court by well-paid law shysters, suing the pants off Raid and Ortho and millions of farmers around the world, and anyone else who uses an insecticide. I can see this nitwit Goetschel and other wacky eco-lawyers, in a year or two, representing a swarm of dead locusts or a field of dead potato bugs. “If fish have ‘rights,’ why not insects?” they’d argue.

Nip this idiocy in the bud.

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Tags: animal laws, animal rights, animals, Antoine F. Goetschel, Antoine Goetschel, court, fish, fish rights, government lawyer, lawyer for animals, Swiss, Swiss animal rights, Swiss fish rights, Switzerland, Zurich