Antoine Goetschel does not actually talk to the animals. That doesn't mean he can't figuratively walk with them as their lawyer, he says.

Goetschel is the first to admit that the concept of lawyers for animals at first strikes most people as frankly bizarre.

"It's to be expected," he said in an interview. "It's part of the game that new ideas aren't taken seriously at first, but in the end they wind up being adopted."

It is an idea that was adopted some years ago by his native canton of Zurich in Switzerland, which created the official post of "lawyer for animal welfare in criminal matters," and Goetschel is currently that lawyer - the only one of his professional breed in the world today.

--
full story:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/ lawyer+cats+dogs/2680978/story.html