Lanna, a cat of around one year old, was found dead in a rubbish bin in the French city of Lille in July 2023.
ADVERTISEMENTA criminal court in France has awarded damages to a cat following a case of animal cruelty.
This is the first time a decision like this has been made in the country.
The court in Lille announced the outcome last Thursday leading to praise from animal lawyers and rights groups.
But the case has also drawn scepticism about the legal complications of treating an animal ‘like a person’.
Cat receives damages in animal abuse case
Lanna, a cat of around one year old, was found dead in a rubbish bin in the French city of Lille in July 2023.
The feline’s owner later admitted to having beaten her to death with his fists and wooden slats after the animal scratched the man’s autistic child.
The case was tried by the Lille Criminal Court last Thursday for ‘acts of cruelty towards an animal’.
Lanna’s owner was sentenced to eight months in prison and banned from keeping a pet.
The court also awarded €100 in damages to the cat, a first in France’s legal history. The small but symbolic compensation amount will be paid to the Animal Protection League (LPA) of northern France, a civil party in the case.
Graziella Dode, a lawyer who represented the LPA, expressed her satisfaction at the outcome.
“For the first time in France, the animal's harm has been recognised and symbolically compensated,” the lawyer specialising in animal law posted on Instagram on Sunday.
She welcomed the decision as “one more step towards the evolution of animal rights.”
Cat awarded legal damages draws scepticism
However, the court’s judgement has had a mixed 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 told the French press.
He nevertheless says he does not “understand on what legal basis this can be based,” and fears the Constitutional Council will react against the court’s decision.
Professor of law at the University of Poitiers, Fabien Marchadier, further questioned the rationality of the court’s judgement.
He said the symbolic decision amounts to “considering that the animal is a person” which “also opens a series of questions on breeding or medical experimentation on animals.”
