duhaime.org

xVDNk TIL in 16th century France, a lawyer successfully defended a group of rats in a court of law, which accused them of eating the barley-crop of local farmers. The court put up posters in nearby towns summoning the rats to court and asked the townspeople to move their cats indoors for their safety .
9YMDX TIL that in 1508 a French town tried to convict the local rats of destroying their crops, a lawyer successfully defended them by first arguing that court summons must be given to each individual rat and then arguing that it was too dangerous for them to come to the trial due to the cats in the town
KOQYG TIL that in 1508, Autun, France pressed charges on rats for destroying barley crops. The lawyer representing the rats argued that the court's summons wasn't specific enough to his clients, and that Autun's cat population made it unsafe for his clients to come to court. The rats were acquitted.