In 2011, Bob and Elizabeth Monyak took their two dogs, Lola and Callie, to a pet kennel in Atlanta. During their stay, the kennel mixed the animals’ medicines, which resulted in Lola going to the hospital with acute kidney failure. Unfortunately, she died nine months after that.
The Monyak family filed a lawsuit against the kennel, but according to the law, dogs are considered property, and the kennel claimed that Lola “has no fair market value” because she was a adopted dog and not bought. This case eventually reached the Supreme Court and the court ruled that the jury could decide on the monetary value of the pet, and not the market.
Finally, Lola was still considered a property in the eyes of the law, but acknowledging that the pet was worth more than what was paid for it or its pure market value was progreess, this case was one of those showing a major and significant change in the way U.S. law looking at man’s best friend.
Why should dogs have rights?
The rights of dogs are not mentioned anywhere in the Law on Rights, but according to the American law, dogs still have certain rights to some extent. According to David Grimm for National Geography, in recent decades, many laws have focused on cats and dogs, which many lawyers would consider rights, such as the right to be free of cruelty, the right to be rescued from natural disaster or the right to have their interests be considered in a courtroom.
Still, in most countries, according to the law, dogs are considered property, which legally does not distinguish them significantly from the furniture in your home. However, cases like the Monyak case mean that such court decisions are changing more and more often. This case is not the first time that the court has measured the value of a dog as well as its right to life. When a dog was mistakenly euthanized in 2012, the Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth, Texas, ruled that “the special value of a man’s best friend should be protected” and effectively gave dogs greater legal status by acknowledging that pets are more than property.
According to one study, as many as 95% of Americans consider their pets to be family members. More than half of them regularly buy birthday and other gifts for their beloved pets, and many cook for their pets every day, just like other members of their human family.
Also, not only has human affection for dogs and cats led to their greater legal recognition, but numerous studies have revealed that dogs are not that different from us. According to research, they „not only have the capacity for emotion, but they also have the ability to read our emotions“.
“Science has shown that the mind of a dog is approximately equivalent to the mind of a human child from two to three years old,” writes dog expert and neuropsychological researcher Stanley Koren. “As a small child, a dog has all the basic emotions: fear, anger, joy, disgust, surprise and love.” Even Pope Francis once acknowledged the feelings of dogs by saying that „any act of cruelty to any creature is contrary to human dignity. ” and that one day we will see animals in heaven because “paradise is open to all of God’s creatures. “
All of this, combined with an understanding of the feelings between a man and his pet, has led to changes in the way the American legal system works. For example, there are more and more lawsuits where pet owners sue for mental suffering and stress when their dog or cat is killed, and many judges have begun to consider what is in the best interest of pets in custody cases when the owner divorces.
What if a man’s best friend has the same rights as a man?
In 2014, the French parliament classified animals as living beings instead of property. Also, New Zealand adopted the Bill on Amendments to Animal Welfare, recognizing that animals are living beings, just like humans. Shortly afterwards, Quebec gave the animals the same rights as children have according to their laws.
However, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) is one of the biggest opponents of recognizing the new legal status for animals, especially pets. AVMA believes that if the law recognizes pets as family members, veterinarians can be sued for abuse, or that veterinarians could be sued if things go wrong if we look at our pets as children. Also, according to them, a dog that, according to the law, has only its adoption costs as value, is much less risky to operate in case of a lawsuit.
Also, some other organizations have expressed concern that by recognizing pets as people by law, pet owners themselves could lose their rights. Many believe that giving animals this legal status could lead to the fact that, for example, pets cannot be sterilized or neutered against their will. All of this could potentially provoke a lot of costly litigation and frivolous disputes.
In the end, according to experts, the recognition of the rights of pets can have both positive and negative consequences, but for now in most countries, including Serbia, dogs and other pets are legally considered as movable property.