Swiss voters reject special prosecutors for animal cases

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

GENEVA–Approximately 70% of the Swiss electorate on March 7,
2010 rejected a referendum proposal by Swiss Animal Protection to
require each canton to designate a public prosecutor to handle animal
cruelty cases–exactly opposite to the outcome that opinion polls
reportedly predicted.
The chances of the proposal passing appeared to be harmed when
the first designated prosecutor of animal cases, Antoine F.
Goetschel of Zurich, brought a cruelty charge against an angler who
took 10 minutes to land a pike in February 2010.
Swiss Animal Protection collected 140,000 signatures to place
the proposal on the ballot. Swiss Animal Protection director
Hansueli Huber told Associated Press writer Eliane Engeler that
cruelty case reports in Switzerland increased by 20% from 2007 to
2008.