Xavier: I mean, I do see it, though the lion's share of those cases generally goes to my associate Eric Goldram. He sort of specializes in civil cases surrounding species discrimination, Whereas my specialty is more in family law. Pup custody, Pup Protective services, Emancipation, those sorts of cases. That's not to say I don't get non-familial discrimination cases, but I don't feel I get enough to truly weigh in...
Eric: If I may chime in...?
Xavier: By all means. Please.
Eric: It's not great. I imagine it's better in Zootopia...but the rest of the civilized mammalian world is still catching up. We aren't just talking mammals with totally maligned reputations, such as foxes and weasels. We're talking wolves, hyenas, and sheep. Rodents especially have a lot of discrimination issues here. I believe there's still a lot of bad blood there between those mammals who've settled out here from Roarope in regards to that. I don't think there's a week that goes by at our firm where a mammal doesn't show up at our firm seeking litigation over being denied entry to a business due to their species. And that's in San Francisgoat! One of the most progressive cities in the North Mammalian Union!
Malcolm: I feel I'd have to bother my sister-in-law in regards to 'just how much better' discrimination in Zootopia is versus San Francisgoat. Considering her former position in politics, she'd probably have the greatest knowledge about the sort of discrimination that happens there on a daily basis.
Eric: *adjusts glasses* I take it you're speaking about Miss Bellwether...*Ahem* I mean Miss Hunter-Bellwether?
Xavier: Who else could I mean? *Chuckles*
Eric: Well, considering she was a long-term victim of workplace discrimination if I recall the case correctly, perhaps you're on to something. Still, Zootopia is at least built with as many mammals in mind as possible. That alone still remains unique to Zootopia, as even here we don't have dedicated places for Rodents to live and feel safe despite their size...And most businesses can't fit any form of megafauna inside comfortably.
Xavier: Unfortunately...Even Malcolm's Diner isn't built for any mammal above eight feet tall, and it's been too prohibitively expensive to do something like that with how few Megafauna live in San Francisgoat.
Eric: And it's that fact I think that sort of allows species discrimination to sort of....proliferate in the loopholes of the laws and demographics of San Fran...*Ahem* Not that I'm implying Malcolm's trying to discriminate. I'm merely saying bad actors who hold discriminatory views like to latch on to what seems like a reasonable argument merely to mask their speciesm. Like not hiring a bunny to do police work because 'oh, they're so small on average it would put us in a position where we'd stand to be more liable for a lawsuit should they get hurt.', when in reality not only would the state handle such a case, but there are places in the city a smaller officer could be assigned and stand on equal footing with the citizenry size wise. Or "We can't fire a fox because everything in our firm is sized for six-foot mammals, and it would prove too costly to remodel it all for one fox." Though I imagine even the smallest mom-and-pop shop could at the very least have a step ladder present for shorter mammals...but I digress, as even those arguments could be made on good faith, but just ignorance...it's just that bigotry can hide among them too.
Xavier: That's why we're here I suppose, to sift through the smokescreen to find the truth. That said...while I don't see nearly as many purely discriminatory cases as Eric does...it's something that permeates in family court, at least to a degree. Basically, I get to see some of the fallout of that sort of discrimination. It just so happens a lot of Pup protective Services cases tend to involve 'maligned species families' such as Weasels and Foxes. Those cases are quite...muddy...in terms of dealing with.
Eric: Because you can't be sure if the state is unjustly persecuting a family harder because they're foxes, if the foxes are actually guilty of what they're being accused of and deserve to have their kits placed in foster care, and if their family is indeed struggling or in a bad way, how much of that has to do with the day in and day out discrimination that's made life rougher for them...
Xavier: It can be a real self-feeding cycle...and it can often be hard to make that call...but I suppose I'm not the judge in these situations anyway, I'm merely here to advocate for the families involved, and I do the best that I can with what my clients are willing to share with me. At the end of the day, I can only hope I've helped in some way.
Eric: I realize this...whole conversation probably doesn't paint San Francisgoat in the best of lighting. It is in fact a lovely place, where most of the time the citizens manage to get along quite well...like police, by virtue of being lawyers we just tend to see the worst aspects of society play out daily. It can really skew your perception of things...but San Francisgoat, while not Zootopia, is far from a third-world hellhole where discrimination is the law. But just like the mammals that build and live in them, no city is perfect.
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