Swiss Cats and Loneliness
The cats of neutral Switzerland and the crippling feeling of absense.
SPECIAL GUEST! All the way from on the phone!
Regular listeners will have heard about him but for the first time he joins the show.
Is there a Swiss breed of cat that needs more attention than most?
Join the Facebook Group for Somehow Related.
Thinking music
SPOILER ALERT - The Answer
Switzerland requires owners of cats, and other social animals, to provide a level of interaction to avoid them suffering emotions similar to the human condition of loneliness.
"The law stipulates that such animals must have a certain level of contact with other such animals, while there are also minimum cage sizes and standards." - SwissInfo.ch
Stemming from this ruling, people living in Switzerland are not allowed to have only one guinea pig.
However, it is legal to eat cat or dog meat.
"Eating cats and dogs is legal in Switzerland and, as the head of Swiss Animal Protection told swissinfo.ch in 2013, “maybe 100 to 200 people in Switzerland eat dog or cat meat from time to time”. Anecdotally, northeastern Switzerland seems to be a hotspot for this." - SwissInfo.ch
Credits
The robot's voice comes from Google Home. They're pretty good.
Original theme music by Kit Warhurst.
Artwork created by Stacy Gougoulis.
Enjoying the podcast? Show you support!
Since 2017 we've been producing fantastic and free podcasts. We've minimised any advertising to make the listening experience as enjoyable as possible.
As the number of shows we publish has grown, so have the costs.
Show your support for this and other Nearly Media shows in any of the following ways.
Free
- Subscribe to nearly.com.au using your email address. Get full access and articles delivered to your inbox.
- Share the show or this article on your social media account. Easy to do! Let your friends and family know what they're missing out on.