Family Matters
For many, pets are like kids, and the animals' love is priceless. So when they die in an accident, it's tough to answer the question "What are they worth?"
Even if I had named my dog Bob Barker, no price would be right for the sudden loss of my animal's companionship. I winced recently when I found the check I had written seven years ago to buy a puppy. I could barely look at the document, because it reminded me that I purchased a living creature whose current value to me is beyond measure. Yet, according to the law in Massachusetts and most other states, the canceled check is the only legal calculation of my dog's worth. My pet is considered property, assessed by the amount I paid, the same as a sofa or DVD player.
This neutered status of pets may be legal, but it's not tender, say some who advocate changing the law. "The value of a companion animal to a human is not the animal. It's the relationship between the two," says Steven Wise, who taught animal rights law at Harvard Law School and has written two books on the subject. "Giving someone $500 or $100 to get a new Fido when you've lost your old Fido is completely detached from reality."
This question - what is a pet worth? - came up this past winter after a dog was electrocuted on a sidewalk in Allston, and the family demanded $740,000 to make it right. The DeVito family wanted the same amount as the annual salary of Thomas J. May, the chief executive of
Cassius was not the first canine casualty of stray voltage in the city, but the story was galvanic because the family immediately hung a dollar sign on their lost pet. This public money grab spurred accusations of greed as well as empathy for the family's loss. In a Boston.com instant poll - "Is your dog worth $740,000?" - 61.6 percent of 1,236 respondents selected the answer "Yes and more," while 38.4 percent went for "No. This is a ridiculous amount of money to ask for because of an unfortunate accident involving an animal."
Boston trial lawyer Douglas Sheff has taken up the DeVitos' complaint and is investigating similar cases, including at least one that involves a guide dog. "Can these cases be worth a great deal of money? Yes, they can." The amount, he says, should reflect the damage people suffer when a dog is killed.
Michael Durand, NStar's spokesman, says he didn't know of Sheff's investigation until I asked him about it. Durand refuses to say whether NStar has made payments to other aggrieved dog owners whose pets were killed or injured by defective wires. "We all feel bad about what happened to Cassius and that Kyle was there to witness it," says Durand, whose family keeps three cats. "We are still hopeful that we will be able to do something for them."
If it ever goes before a jury, a Cassius et al. v. NStar case could set a significant precedent. "What has been evolving is an increasing recognition that keeping the very strict property-only status of animals makes no moral or common sense," writes Sarah Luick, a board member for the Animal Legal Defense Fund, in an e-mail.
The law may be keeping pace with social attitudes toward companion animals. The family mutt once lived on the periphery of the household, sleeping in the garage and eating scraps. Now, postmodern pets have become like kids - welcomed into the master bedroom, dressed in poufy clothes and accessories, and fed organic kibble.
Wise stresses that animals will never attain all the rights of humans, but they could someday be classified as "persons," a legalese designation also given to corporations. "We are beginning to move the law to recognize some species of nonhuman animals as persons, not things," Wise says.
Sheff, the injury lawyer, looks at it this way: "Because these animals are connected to humans so closely, we could see some real numbers here."
Monica Collins writes biweekly. E-mail her at mcollins@globe.com. 
