A cat, named Rambo, experienced an ordeal in August 2023. The poor animal was locked in a cage and left in front of a veterinary practice in Muttenz (BL). Rambo had to wait for a little less than an hour, under the blazing sun, before someone came to his aid. According to data from MeteoSwiss, a heat wave was affecting the entire territory and the mercury reached 36 degrees in the region that day.
The perpetrators of this abandonment had to recently answer before the courts of Basel-Landschaft. They are two women, aged 55 and 21. The first, the owner of the cat, living in Basel-Stadt, wanted to get rid of Rambo. She then entrusted it to a friend, younger, on a trial basis. Ultimately, her friend didn’t want it either. The young woman then decided to abandon the feline, with the agreement of the original owner.
The two women were sanctioned. The fifty-year-old was sentenced to a suspended sentence of 40 days fine at 50 francs per day, suspended for two years, for abandoning Rambo. To this sentence is added a firm fine of 500 francs for the mistreatment inflicted on the cat, namely the fact of having left it to roast in the sun. Including the procedural costs, she will have to pay a total of 1231.50 francs. His 21-year-old acquaintance was also sentenced to a suspended financial sentence and a fine of 500 francs. With the procedural costs, she will have to pay the same amount as the original owner.
Namely that the two women had the possibility of giving up the cat by handing it over to an animal shelter, indicates the Quatre Pattes association on its website. In fact, abandoning animals is prohibited in Switzerland, whether it is done in the forest or in front of a veterinary practice.
