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Already boasting laws to protect goldfish from being flushed down the toilet and to guarantee companions for lonely animals, Switzerland is holding a vote on whether abused animals deserve lawyers.
Legal representation in cases involving mistreated animals has been compulsory since 1992 in the Zurich canton, but pet politics could be taken to a new level if voters extend the right to the other 25 mini-states.
The poll, which is to be held today, is the latest example of Switzerland's "direct democracy" in which any citizen who collects 100,000 signatures from eligible voters can force a nationwide referendum on their chosen cause.
The vote was initiated by the Swiss Animal Protection (PSA) group and would oblige all cantons to name a lawyer for animals during judicial proceedings.
"It is not about Paris Hilton's dog now needing a lawyer to represent its interests," said Antoine Goetschel, Switzerland's only lawyer mandated by his canton in Zurich to handle animal welfare cases.
It was about protecting animals who are harmed by the very people who were meant to take care of them, Mr Goetschel said ahead of the vote.
The problem was that the animal had "no rights", unlike humans who could prosecute the person who had caused harm, Mr Goetschel said.
Environment groups, the Green and Socialist parties are supporting the initiative. But the government, parliament and the country's biggest party, the far-right Swiss People's Party, are against.
However, a lawyer's presence would not usher in a slew of children being prosecuted for pulling a mosquito's leg off, said Green MP Adele Thorenz Goumaz, as the law only covers "vertebrates" raised or used by man.
"In reality, lawyers for animals have a limited role. They can only work when there are penal procedures stemming from a violation of the law," she told the Le Temps newspaper.
The strongest opposition is in the countryside.
"It will generate too much bureaucracy," complained Urs Schneider, spokesman for the Swiss Farmers' Union.
"Switzerland already has existing laws to protect animals," he told Agence France-Presse.
Switzerland already has one of the world's most comprehensive laws on animal rights.
Under laws revised in 2008, people wanting to get rid of a fish cannot flush it down a toilet bowl alive. It must be knocked out, killed and then its body disposed of.
Sociable household pets such as budgies and hamsters cannot be left alone. Even sheep and goats must have at least a "visual contact with their fellows".
