Posted on 12/17/2009 9:37:36 AM PST by Ebenezer
MONTPELIER, Vt. – Vermont's highest court is being asked to decide what a dog's love is worth.
The state Supreme Court on Thursday began hearing a case that started in July 2003, when Denis and Sarah Scheele, who were visiting relatives, let their mixed-breed dog wander into Lewis Dustin's yard and he fatally shot it.
Now the Scheeles, of Annapolis, Md., are asking the court to carve out a new legal doctrine that a dog's owners can sue for emotional distress and loss of companionship, just like parents can when they lose children.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
http://www.justiceforshadow.com
I love dogs and own have owned several (including one presently). However, at the end of the day, they will love whoever feeds them.
I think a big part of this would depend on whether the guy shot the dog because he really didn’t want it in his yard, or if he shot the dog, knowing it would affect the owners. Obviously, it would be very hard to prove the latter, but if it was, then he knew they would suffer a great loss.
I see that dogs and men have something in common. ;^D
Your lack of discrimination is your own. Millions of others easily distinguish between a dog's love for their owners and their happiness over being fed. That you remain so blind after actually having had multiple dogs is something which should embarrass you, rather than something you foolishly invoke as "insight."
I love the hell out of my two dogs, and that’s why I don’t let them run around and bother others. This will set a very bad precedent, leading to PETA’s goal of giving animals the same legal rights as citizens.
“The Scheeles are particularly devoted pet owners. They feed their dogs human food, brush the dogs’ teeth and dress them in raincoats when it’s wet outside. On a Web site devoted to Shadow’s memory, they wrote, “Every day without you running and playing and cuddling with us is more difficult than the day before. The loss of your presence in our every moment is unbelievably painful. Not a moment passes that you are not in our thoughts, our hearts and our prayers.”
Maybe they can use some of the money they win to pay for therapy, they sure need it.
My dogs have proven alot more loving and faithful than some of the girlfriends I’ve ever had.
In certain circumstances in this state you can collect emotional distress damages for breach of contract. Many people are very emotional about their pets, so this doesn't strike me as a big deal.
Make that SOME men.
I love animals, but this equates a dog with kids.
...Sarah Scheele gave up her work as a meeting planner and has devoted her time since the dog’s death to advocating for animal welfare and caring for the six special-needs dogs — most of them abused in the past — the couple has adopted in recent years....
How about CHILD welfare? How about Special Needs kids? I have heard of pet owners as ‘pet parents’. As I tell people who refer to me as my cat’s mom—’No, her mother had for legs and a tail!’
There are 100,000 children in the US alone looking for parents.
WAKE UP, PEOPLE, animals are NOT children. I do think, however, that they deserve to be treated better than endtables.
Also we don’t know if the guy had reasonable control over his dog. Also were any warnings given about the dog being in the guy’s yard.
I live in a dog town and people here have pretty good control of their dogs but dogs do get loose on occasion. However we don’t shoot them at the first opportunity. If there’s a problem its taken up with the owners.
1. Too fuzzy. How can you measure this? Who is to say one person suffered more (or less) emotionally than another over loss of a pet.
2. They are putting a dog in the same class as humnan being (emotional suffering at loss of spouse vs loss of dog.)
3. Opens pandora’s box. Auto accident involving a dog (your auto insurance rates are going up.) Vet malpractice (this will skyrocket vet bills and vet insurance costs.)
At the end of the day, a dog is a dog. I’m sorry for them, but it isn’t in the same class as losing a human relative. For society’s sake, it can’t be.
There are some people my dogs don’t like food or no food.
OMG, these people are sick! There are kids that are beaten and killed by their parents and these people are literally treating the animals as kids. Yoou are right—they need therapy.
They deserve to lose this case. The reason? They didn't love their dog. If they did, they wouldn't have allowed it to wander around on it's own. If anyone should be sued it should be them, for animal neglect.
I think there are a lot of childless people out there who substitute animals for children. Therefore, the Scheeles’ grief (which we may otherwise find extreme and bizarre) is understandable.
They see things in people and places... like when they suddenly get up and growl at an empty part of the room...
I understand why the have the grief ie because they treat their pets as children. What I don’t understand is WHY they treat their pets as children. I don’t understand anyone who puts any animal in the same class as people.
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