Regarding your coverage (Mar. 8, Mar. 15) of pet owners suing for large sums over the death of their animals: You'll probably see this Illinois $100,000 loss-of-cat story around, but I hope you won't miss the lawyer's quote, which is to my mind the inadvertently perfect summary of the larger problem:
[said Anzalone's attorney, Amy Breyer, who specializes in animal law:] "The point of trying to recover monetary damages is to establish for the whole world to see that this relationship had value," she added. "This shows it's not OK to say 'it's just a cat -- get it out of my face'."-- Chuck Shepherd, News of the Weird Posted by Walter Olson at March 15, 2005 11:23 PM