Is a Cat’s Life Worth 40 Cents?

STATES VARY ON WHETHER OWNERS CAN GET EMOTIONAL DAMAGES FOR A PET’S DEATH

By Deidre Foley, Mark Banchereau, Sunny Nagpaul, Génesis Dávila Santiago

When Ryan Berry realized her cat, Kitty, was dying in 2019, she decided the time had come to call a veterinarian to her California home to euthanize her beloved pet.

The veterinarian, Jeffery R. Frazier, recommended a “heart stick,” in which he would jab an injection of medication — without anesthesia — directly into the feline’s heart, according to court documents. 

Kitty would “never know what’s happening,” Berry recalled the veterinarian telling her, adding that he’d use a “small needle,” that it would be “very quick,” and that her cat “won’t feel a thing.”

Only afterward did Berry learn the procedure is considered by many advocates as so “inhumane” and “extremely painful” that a California law prohibits it “unless the animal is heavily sedated or anesthetized.” 

Berry said that if she knew the pain Kitty would face, she never would have agreed to the procedure. She sued Frazier in 2021, claiming emotional distress and damages.

However, under California regulations, pet owners are largely barred from suing for emotional damages related to pets. The trial court dismissed the majority of Berry’s case, and found no wrongdoing by Frazier or the now-defunct company for which he worked. Berry filed an appeal, where judges ruled in her favor, and sent the case back to trial court. That case remains ongoing as of publication of this story.

Yet, if Berry lived in Illinois, the laws there would have allowed her to sue for emotional damages if the pet’s death was found to be due to negligence.

The disparate rules are part of a confusing patchwork of laws governing legal rights of pets, pet owners and veterinarians in the U.S. that vary state by state, a NYCity News Service review has found. 

Veterinary technician Ashli Selke hugs a dog getting medical treatment. She’s the immediate past vice president of National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America, an industry group for veterinary technicians. PHOTO/Courtesy Ashli Selke

‘No National Standard’

The myriad of regulations, laws and oversight of animal medicine affects everything from when and how veterinarians must report pet abuse, whether assistants working at a veterinary clinic have to be licensed and other key rules that influence the ability of states to oversee claims of wrongdoing.

When it comes to suing for damages arising from malpractice, “there is no national standard,” said David S. Favre, a Michigan State University law professor who specializes in animal legal issues. “It is determined on the veterinarians state by state.”

For example, states have different rules on how they regulate veterinarian technicians, the support staff who often form the backbone of animal clinics.

In 41 states, these workers are licensed after taking a national exam and can be disciplined by a state agency for wrongdoing. 

A NYCity News Service review of New York State’s Board of Regents — which monitors professional misconduct for all licensed professions other than medical professionals statewide — found vet techs have been sanctioned for violations including impersonating veterinarians, doing dental surgery without supervision and giving pets medicines or anesthesia that they are not trained or licensed to administer. Disciplinary actions ranged from fines and suspensions up to license revocation.

But in other states, these workers are not regulated. 

Even rules on reporting suspected animal abuse by pet owners vary — with some states requiring veterinarians to report their concerns, while other states’ reporting guidelines make that practice voluntary.

Pets as Property

One common thread among all states is that pets are legally considered property — which limits owners to suing for the value of their loss, as they would for a couch or a table, or for the cost of the expenses to maintain their pets, like veterinary bills. 

Favre said state courts are reluctant to consider expanding the rights of pet owners to include the ability to file claims of emotional distress without legislatures passing laws permitting it. 

“State supreme courts are simply unwilling to open that door to such an unknown category of damages without the legislature saying that they should do it,” he said. “Because what is the value of having lost your dog that you’ve had for five years? Some people say, ‘It’s priceless,’ and ‘It’s a million dollars.’ And other people say, ‘Go buy a new dog.’” 

However, Christopher Berry, an attorney at the Animal Legal Defense Fund in California, said that by limiting damages to the market value of the animal, these laws create an incentive for veterinarians to cut corners.

“Imagine you’re an insurance company, insuring a veterinarian, and the payout for a negligently killed dog is only $2,000 versus maybe $20,000,” he said. “The incentives that are in place to more diligently manage pets goes away. It could just become pocket change for them.”

Joan Schaffner, a professor at George Washington University’s law school, said the issue of allowing emotional damages for deceased pets “has been an ongoing debate for many, many, many years.”

That issue of emotional damages was central to Ryan Berry’s case against Frazier and Vetted Petcare, the now-shuttered pet services that employed him. The veterinarian and company denied all charges, and countered that the cat was comatose at the time of the procedure, and felt no pain, according to documents from the trial court.

The lower court agreed, dismissing Berry’s case in October 2021.

But Berry appealed her case to a California appeals court, where judges ruled in 2023 that the case could go forward on claims of fraud and emotional distress, and sent the case back to the lower court for reconsideration.

Elsewhere around the country, courts have ruled that pet owners can seek other avenues — beyond just the market value of a dog or cat — when suing a veterinarian for malpractice. 

‘Fair Market Value’

In Tennessee, a 10-year-old cat named Callie who was brought to an animal hospital after showing weakness and unwillingness to eat, died when vets mistakenly put a feeding tube down her windpipe instead of her esophagus — and started pumping food into her lungs, according to a summary of court documents.

After Callie died, a lab showed she had liver disease, and a trial judge ruled the cat would have likely died soon anyway, according to the court documents obtained by the Animal, Legal and Historical Center.

The owners appealed the case, and an appellate judge ruled that while they could not sue for damages beyond the value of the cat, they could sue for the cat’s value as well as for the cost of the botched medical procedure. 

​​”There is no question that Callie’s death was caused by the defendants’ misconduct,” the appeals court judge said in his decision.

The appeals court judge sent the case back to the lower court, saying the value of the cat was up to that court to decide. 

While Callie’s owner estimated the cat’s “fair market value was $5,000,” one of the veterinarians who treated the cat estimated that a healthy cat has a value of around $75 and a sick cat about to die is worth 40 cents, court documents show.

The lower court in 2019 ultimately awarded $100 for economic damages in the cat’s death, according to court records.

Reporting Animal Abuse

States also differ in whether they require veterinarians to report if they suspect others of abusing the animals they treat.

At least 10 states had no laws or regulations concerning reporting of animal cruelty as of 2023 — including Montana, Iowa, New Jersey and Louisiana — according to the Animal, Legal and Historical Center, a repository on animal law at the Michigan State University law school.

And even in the states that do require some form of mandatory reporting, there are caveats. Pennsylvania’s law only requires a veterinarian to report abuse if they suspect it’s being carried out by another veterinarian. 

In 2015, a survey published by the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association found that 87% of veterinarians who responded said they had witnessed animal abuse, but only 56% said they reported it. 

”The trend is gradually moving towards reporting cruelty and having vets report cruelty,” said Rebecca Wisch, associate editor for the Animal, Legal and Historical Center. Wisch added that there have been “more and more states adopting either these permissive or mandatory reporting laws.”

Even as increasing numbers of veterinarians recognize the importance of abuse laws, some still find mandatory reporting a challenge, experts said.

“One of the things you have to be concerned about are the unintended consequences,” said Schaffner, the George Washington University Law School professor. 

“If people know that if they bring their animal to the vet and the vet suspects animal abuse, they’re going to report it, then they may not take their animal to the vet in the first place,” Schaffner explained. “That was one of the primary arguments that were raised against having the mandatory reporting, is that it would disincentivize owners to take their animal to the vet.”

In addition, some veterinarians might fear legal backlash if they report abuse in a case that’s not able to be substantiated, Schaffner said.

In states where reporting is voluntary, a veterinarian may have a hard time deciding what calls for attention. 

“I think that places almost too much onus on the veterinarian to decide whether to do it, under what circumstances,” Schaffner added — saying that the selective reporting might negatively impact marginalized communities.

Overseeing Veterinarian Technicians

Another difference among states involves how they handle supervision of workers at animal clinics.

Veterinary technicians — who have less training than veterinarians but are called on to handle many routine tasks — are crucial to clinics’ operations. 

In most states, veterinary technicians are licensed by a state board, or in some way registered or certified. In many places, that includes checks on their education and requirements that they pass an exam. But that is not true in every state, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

In a dozen states around the U.S., there is no definition for what constitutes a veterinary technician, and no regulation of who can use the title, according to a 2022 report by the New Jersey-based National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America. 

“Anyone can call themselves a veterinary technician and that creates a risk to the public and the pets they have,” said Ashli Selke, a veterinary technician and past president of the association, who now teaches at Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. 

According to that 2022 report, 29 states do not regulate the training and education needed to become a technician. Three states — Alaska, Wisconsin and California — allow aspiring technicians to take an exam to be licensed without meeting any educational requirements.

“They allow anybody to be called veterinary technicians when they don’t have the knowledge, the skill set, the background to really be the equivalent of a nurse, if you will, in the veterinary field,” said Robert Murtaugh, a veterinarian and committee chair for the Coalition for the Veterinary Professional Associate, a nonprofit seeking to improve industry standards.  “It’s a false sense of security to the public.”

Veterinarian Robert Murtaugh, who works to improve standards in the industry, supports minimum training requirements for vet techs. PHOTO/Courtesy Robert Murtaugh

Selke and Murtaugh believe the gold standard for technicians should be two to four years of education along with passing a national examination — and anyone with lesser credentials shouldn’t be called by the same name or be allowed to perform the same tasks.

“It’s basically justifying or validating that they’re the equal of somebody that’s gone through a four-year degree program,” Murtaugh said.

The roles of veterinary technicians vary state to state. Most states allow technicians to give vaccines and medications, take X-rays and assist with surgical procedures.

A review of state disciplinary records offers a window into what can happen when veterinary technicians do not do their jobs properly. 

In New York, for instance, agency records show that in 2022, a technician in upstate Lockport was fined $250, and put on probation for two years with a stayed suspension, after the agency accused her of performing two dental procedures and sedating animals without the supervision of a veterinarian, as required under state rules. The technician did not contest the charges.

In September 2022, a veterinarian in upstate Ransomville was ordered to pay a $750 fine and put on probation for two years with a stayed suspension after the agency said the vet assigned  a technician to do unsupervised dental cleanings. The veterinarian did not contest the charges.

Debate Over Telemedicine 

Adding to the issue of state oversight is the debate over how to regulate veterinary providers using virtual appointments, a practice that’s risen over the past two decades for pets and humans alike — and surged during the pandemic.

Proponents argue telemedicine can help alleviate a shortage of veterinarians — particularly in rural areas. With an estimated 127,000 veterinarians in the U.S. in 2023, compared with almost 200 million pets, proponents of telehealth say online medicine is a valid and necessary solution to providing care.

But critics raise concerns about the quality of care veterinarians can give for animals they haven’t seen in person. Since pets cannot describe their symptoms, critics say, veterinarians should rely on physical examinations — at least for new patients. 

At least five states allow a veterinarian-pet relationship to be established without an in-person examination: Arizona, New Jersey, Virginia, Idaho and California. Ten states say the relationship must be established in person. 

Other states fall somewhere in between. In Iowa, a veterinarian is typically required to have seen the animal in person within the past 12 months. Georgia allows telemedicine exceptions, such as if there is a life-or-death emergency.  

The Veterinary Virtual Care Association, which promotes telemedicine, has argued there is little difference in the quality of care between in-person and virtual visits. 

States also differ on whether individuals who are not veterinarians can own a veterinary clinic.

Some states, like Tennessee and Indiana, require clinics to be mostly owned by licensed veterinarians. 

But 15 states — including Florida and California — permit those who are not veterinarians to own a majority stake in a veterinary practice, according to a review by the American Animal Hospital Association, a trade group, in 2023.

Corporations are increasing their ownership stakes in veterinary clinics and hospitals — employing two out of every five veterinarians working in the United States as of 2022, according to Otto, a company that provides technology for the veterinary industry.

Mark Cushing, chief executive of Animal Policy Group, a lobbying and industry relations group for veterinary business, said a 15-year trend of corporations buying veterinary clinics will likely continue.

“Veterinary medicine has caught up with other healthcare professions in allowing outside investors,” he said.

Veterinarians say they worry about large corporations taking over animal hospitals, saying they don’t want a conglomerate deciding which medicines and procedures are allowed. 

“At a private, smaller practice, you can decide what you want to do based on your medical choices,” said Alicia Bye, a veterinarian in Texas. “But once corporate medicine starts dictating those things, it’s about money, it’s about the bottom line.”

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