Your pet is priceless to you, but the law says they’re property
The deaths of 10 dogs in a flood at a dog day care in Northeast D.C. on Monday has left some owners angry, as well as grief-stricken.
When a dog — or any pet — dies in the care of a veterinarian, boarding facility or groomer, or even a dog walker, an owner may want to sue, but an attorney says they can find their options are limited.
While laws vary from state to state, typically, a pet is seen as property.
In Maryland, “you can recover the market value of the pet before the injury, or the cost of veterinary care,” attorney Daniel Miller of the Miller Stern law firm in Baltimore told WTOP.
He explained that, under a Maryland law known as the pet damages statute, the current cap is $10,000.
Punitive damages are “extremely hard to get in Maryland,” according to Miller, because a pet owner would have to show “deliberate actions” or “willful intent” led to the death of the animal.
And when it comes to trying to recover damages for the anguish caused by the loss of a pet, Miller said, “The law is actually silent regarding compensation for the owner’s pain and suffering.”
Miller said he’s sympathetic to pet owners, “I get at least one call a week from someone wanting to sue their vet for doing something wrong and killing their pet.”
Given the way that most pet owners feel about their animals, Miller was asked if he thinks Maryland law might change. He said that’s possible, “rules change, and laws change and society changes,” but any greater compensation for grieving pet owners would require a change in the law.