One of the more interesting things about Switzerland is that you only need 100,000 signatures on a petition to take a bill to a national referendum, so pretty much anyone with a little time and dedication can get a bill up for consideration by the entire nation. Recently, the Swiss Animal Protection League manages to scrape together the required amount of signatures and put forth a bill requiring the government to pay for lawyers for animals involved in abuse cases. Needless to say, voters rejected the animal lawyer bill.
Switzerland already has a practicing animal lawyer, a guy named Antoine Goetschel. He estimated that the cost of providing lawyers for animals would have been less than $1 per year per person, but that’s still too rich for Swiss blood. Animals in Switzerland already benefit from some of the best protection on the books in Europe anyway, so most of the voters seemed to feel that they didn’t need legal representation for chupacabras and Bigfoot.
Image: Boston Herald
Tags: unusual animals, law and order, Switzerland, Swiss voters reject lawyers for animals, animal lawyers, Swiss Animal Protection League, Antoine Goetschel