Swiss pensioner in court for feeding neighbour’s cat

Under Swiss law, cats are "other people's property" and systematic feeding and giving a home to another person's cat is considered unlawful appropriation. Keystone-SDA

A 68-year-old Swiss woman is in court in Zurich on Tuesday, accused of systematically feeding her neighbour's cat "Leo" - a criminal offence in Switzerland - so that the cat no longer wanted to go home.

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Zurich’s public prosecutor is calling for the pensioner to be given a suspended fine (CHF3,600) for unlawful appropriation. The elderly woman also faces an additional fine of CHF800. The case has gone to court as the defendant refused to accept the initial penalty order.

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The pensioner is said to have repeatedly fed Leo, who lived in the same building, over a ten-month period and let him into her flat to stay. She did this even after cat’s owner wrote to her to forbid her her from doing so.

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According to the penalty order, the woman also adapted her own cat flap so that Leo could enter and leave her home at any time. The result was that Leo never returned to its rightful owner.

Systematic feeding: a criminal offence

Cases like this are increasingly ending up in court because the rightful owners report the “feeders”. Under Swiss law, cats are “other people’s property” and systematic feeding and giving a home to another person’s cat is considered unlawful appropriation.

But if a neighbour’s cats are only fed occasionally, this is not a punishable offence in Switzerland.

Translated from German by DeepL/sb

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