Swiss voters reject legal representation for animals

Animals deserve no special right to legal representation, Swiss voters decided in a referendum Sunday, dpa reported.

Proposed by animal rights organizations, Sunday's referendum asked voters to decide whether Switzerland's cantons would have to hire special legal representatives for abused animals. However, more than 70 per cent of voters rejected the proposal, according to initial returns.

Proponents say progressive animal rights legislation is useless if animal abuse is treated as a misdemeanor. Employing lawyers to represent animal abuse cases would have meant that animal protection laws could be applied as strictly as possible.

Those backers point to the canton of Zurich, where an animal rights lawyer has been employed since 1992 and about 190 animal abuse cases were prosecuted in 2008, a far higher number than in many other Swiss cantons.