For the Love of a Family Pet

The measure of damages for the love of a lost or injured pet has posed difficulties for developing jurisprudence because pets are treated as property under the eyes of the law. Whether it is Seamus, the Romney’s family Irish setter, or Bo, the First Dog, that resides at the White House, one thing is clear: More and more Americans consider their pets to be part of the family. According to the 2011-12 American Pet Products National Pet Owners Survey, approximately 164 million dogs and cats were part of a family’s household in America. For many pet owners, the emotional attachment to the family’s fury four-legged companion simply cannot be equated to one’s relationship with a fungible object such as sofa or a lamp. Pet expenditures in 2011 alone totaled $50.96 billion. Despite America’s love of the family pet, the law has been slow to change how to measure damages for injury or death of a pet. However, the tides are finally changing for California pet owners. Two recent appellate court opinions recognized the unique intrinsic characteristics of the family pet and affirmed damage awards that far exceeded the actual value of two pets (“Pumkin” and “Romeo”), intentionally injured by nefarious neighbors.

It has long been recognized that an injury to an animal is treated as an injury to property. Well before pets were treated as companions, the common law in California developed rules to allow farmers and ranchers to protect their livestock from trespassers. In California, the measure of damages for tortious conduct is the amount which will compensate the injured party for all the detriment proximately caused by the wrongdoer (Cal. Civ. Code §3333). For tortious injury to personal property, the general measure of damages is the difference between the market value of the property immediately before and immediately after the injury, or the repair cost as long as the repair cost is less than the diminution in value. (Cal. Civ. Jury Instructions, 3903J) That meant if a neighbor injured a pet costing no more $10, the total amount of recovery for injury that pet was limited to $10, even if the injured pet’s medical bills totaled $20.