Matthew Scully has written a piece on “the Conservative Case against Animal Cruelty” in the newest print issue of NR. I wonder what he’d have to say about this:

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.
Voters will decide in a March 7 poll whether every canton (state) should be required to appoint an animal lawyer to represent the interests of pets and farm animals in court — in effect a dedicated public prosecutor for dogs, cats and other vertebrates that have been abused by humans.
“Swiss law has taken a big step forward in recent years” particularly for animals that live in groups, Goetschel tells The Associated Press.
The country’s constitution now prohibits keeping pigs in single pens and budgies alone in a cage — solitary confinement, as Goetschel calls it.
Dog owners have to take a training course and from 2013 it will be forbidden to tie horses in their stalls.
Campaign group Swiss Animal Protection, which launched the petition and gathered the necessary 100,000 signatures to force a nationwide vote, argues that abuses on pets are often not taken seriously by local authorities and don’t make it up to court.
The Swiss government has recommended voters reject the proposal, saying animal lawyers are unnecessary and existing laws are sufficient.