"I know it was financially dumb," says the client, "but my mind-set all along was, 'We're not going to let them win.' This is an animal that I love. I have no children, so [my dogs] are all my friends, my family, my teammates. To steal someone like that out of my house is emotionally devastating."
The disconnect between the law and heartbreak is symptomatic of the inconsistencies that bedevil animal law in general. For instance, while Pepperoni is the legal equivalent of a sofa, he is nonetheless protected by anti-cruelty laws. Of course, Pepperoni is a sentient being, capable of experiencing cruelty in a way that a sofa is not, but then--the inconsistencies continue--why should "food" animals, who are as feeling and emotionally alive as Pepperoni, be for all practical purposes exempt from cruelty legislation?
These discrepancies go to the heart of society's schizophrenic attitudes towards animals. Argues Corey Evans, an attorney from San Francisco: "If you took a dog and you pumped a pound of food into its stomach in three seconds, three times a day, for three weeks until the dog was so diseased it couldn't move to defend itself from rats eating it alive, then people would lose their minds. But do it to a 'food' animal to make foie gras and people aren't so shocked."
Still, societal sands are shifting. California recently passed a bill banning the production of foie gras starting in 2012. And the animal-rights group In Defense of Animals has succeeded in changing the term animal "owner"--with its property connotations--to animal "guardian" in city codes in such places as San Francisco and West Hollywood. In cases of veterinary malpractice, juries now are setting monetary values for animals far in excess of their market value. In Orange County, for example, when a 3-year-old dog called Shane was killed through malpractice at the All Care Animal Referral Center, pet owner Marc Bluestone sued and was awarded more than $30,000. The jury said that though the mutt had a $10 "market value," she had a special worth to Bluestone that they put at $30,000. They also awarded $9,000 for vet bills.
And although courts frequently will bend over backwards to accommodate the dying wishes of a pet guardian, if that request is that the pets be put down, the wish is often refused. These cases are particularly unusual in that they defy the owner's wishes in favor of the interests of the animal. Moral of the story: If you want to kill your pets, do it while you're alive.
