I am not waiting with bated breath for the resolution of this case. Defamation cases can last for years and years, beyond the lifetime of some of your readers. Money intended for our voiceless animals can end up in the already deep pockets of the legal profession.

Clash of a Judge and a Small Paper Underlines the Tangled History of Defamation

November 20, 2006, Monday
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE (NYT); Business/Financial Desk
Late Edition - Final, Section C, Page 4, Column 1, 1192 words
DISPLAYING ABSTRACT - It was like a scene out of ''Bleak House,'' in which Dickens chronicled an interminable court case. In 1983, a Supreme Court justice in Pennsylvania sued The Philadelphia Inquirer for defamation. The case was finally dismissed this summer -- a full 23 years after it began.