Lanna, a cat of round one 12 months old, was discovered lifeless in a garbage bin within the French metropolis of Lille in July 2023.
A prison courtroom in France has awarded damages to a cat following a case of animal cruelty.
This is the primary time a choice like this has been made within the nation.
The courtroom in Lille introduced the end result final Thursday resulting in reward from animal legal professionals and rights teams.
But the case has additionally drawn scepticism in regards to the authorized problems of treating an animal ‘like a person’.
Cat receives damages in animal abuse case
Lanna, a cat of round one 12 months old, was discovered lifeless in a garbage bin within the French metropolis of Lille in July 2023.
The feline’s proprietor later admitted to having crushed her to loss of life along with his fists and wood slats after the animal scratched the person’s autistic little one.
The case was tried by the Lille Criminal Court final Thursday for ‘acts of cruelty towards an animal’.
Lanna’s proprietor was sentenced to eight months in jail and banned from maintaining a pet.
The courtroom additionally awarded €100 in damages to the cat, a primary in France’s authorized historical past. The small however symbolic compensation quantity will likely be paid to the Animal Protection League (LPA) of northern France, a civil get together within the case.
Graziella Dode, a lawyer who represented the LPA, expressed her satisfaction on the consequence.
“For the first time in France, the animal’s harm has been recognised and symbolically compensated,” the lawyer specialising in animal legislation posted on Instagram on Sunday.
She welcomed the choice as “one more step towards the evolution of animal rights.”
Cat awarded authorized damages attracts scepticism
However, the courtroom’s judgement has had a blended reception from the president of France’s Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA).
“As president of the SPA, it makes me happy because it means that we are thinking about the status of the animal,” Jacques-Charles Fombonne informed the French press.
He nonetheless says he doesn’t “understand on what legal basis this can be based,” and fears the Constitutional Council will react towards the courtroom’s choice.
Professor of legislation on the University of Poitiers, Fabien Marchadier, additional questioned the rationality of the courtroom’s judgement.
He stated the symbolic choice quantities to “considering that the animal is a person” which “also opens a series of questions on breeding or medical experimentation on animals.”
