Swiss animal-rights charity launches "pain breeder" lawsuits (original) (raw)
footpad 😟depressed
November 29 2012, 16:41
Now here's some interesting news. A Swiss animal-rights charity, the "Foundation for the Animal in Law", has sued seven animal breeders under animal-protection law, on the grounds that the breeding selects for characteristics which are inherently cruel.
One of the breeders in questions breeds pigeons; the others are cat breeders. My knowledge of pigeons can be summed up with an umbrella and RFC1149, and my experience of cats is mostly limited to the self-selecting and nearly-indestructible black-and-white farm cats of rural Britain. Therefore I can't really speak to the merits of these specific cases.
But if these lawsuits succeed, and that turns attention to the horrible plight of certain breeds of dog, then my response to this news is a hearty sigh of, thank fuck for that. This is a significant landmark in the progress of public awareness that, in their quest for some twisted notion of physical perfection, a minority of animal breeders and owners have simply lost their grip on common-sense normality, and become the enemy of the well-being of the very animals they love.
Article in German: http://www.nzz.ch/aktuell/panorama/sieben-exempel-gegen-die-qualzucht-1.17852397
Google translation into English: http://goo.gl/w9sxI
—
Translation footnote: Qualzucht and related terms tend to translate into English as "torture breeder", but that's a bit unfortunate. Quälen translates better as "to inflict pain", without the deliberate malice implied by "torture".