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It's not a comment about that. It's about thinking of where we should draw the line with allowing Western democracies to do things they were never meant to do.
by wallace_f 9y ago
It's not a comment about that. It's about thinking of where we should draw the line with allowing Western democracies to do things they were never meant to do.
- smoe 9y agoIt is always good to think where to draw the line in terms of government interference. But in this case the Swiss direct democracy is working exactly as expected by the people of the country. They voted decades ago that the government must be in charge and enforce the protection of the dignity and well-being of animals as well as update the law based on new findings. The new rules (which include the lobster stuff) going into effect are just the current iteration. For example, from the first of March all devices that automatically punish dogs for barking will be outlawed. This is an intrusion in personal liberty, but the Swiss as a whole seem quite fine with valuing the well being of the animals higher than their owners liberty to use those devices on them. If the Swiss are unhappy with the decisions made by the government here, we have the referendum as an quite often used instrument to stop it. You would need 55'000 signatures within 100 days if I remember correctly to trigger a vote on the national level.