07:32 AM EDT on Monday, July 18, 2005

From AP and The Courier-Journal

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Jeffrey Kent Levine was at a loss when his best friend and constant companion Rudy died just after Christmas 2002.

Levine sued the doctor in Jefferson County Circuit Court, claiming negligence and seeking damages for pain and suffering. The catch: Rudy was a golden retriever being treated by a veterinarian for a pulled tendon and the dog was named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

The pending suit, filed in October 2003 against East Louisville Animal Hospital and veterinarian Gary Edlin, is part of a growing trend in litigation, suing the veterinarian when the family pet dies.

"He meant everything to me," said Levine, founder of Kentucky Pet Gazette and publisher of the Pet Gazette newspaper in New York. "Rudy and I were made for one another."

But, whether Levine can sue with his late pet as a plaintiff is unclear. Edlin and the hospital are seeking to have the dog dropped as a plaintiff and the suit dismissed. They say making Rudy a plaintiff is just an effort to promote the pet's standing beyond property and allowing the suit to go forward would "make a mockery of the judicial system."

Levine's attorney, Samuel Carl, said naming Rudy as a plaintiff was intended to counter such an argument. Naming the dog "accentuates the fact that it is not a piece of property that is gone," Carl said. "(Rudy) is not a throwaway lighter."

Susan Maines, an attorney for East Louisville Animal Hospital and Edlin, said neither the vet nor the hospital did anything inappropriate in caring for Rudy.

"There's nothing to indicate that anything Dr. Edlin did caused this dog's death," she said.

Courts have typically treated pets as property, and assessed them by their market value and awarding owners the replacement cost. But, in February 2004, a California jury awarded $39,000 for the death of Shane, a part Labrador adopted from a shelter. That marked the highest veterinary malpractice award to date.

Such cases still are rare in Kentucky. But two of the biggest awards occurred in the Bluegrass State. A Franklin County jury in 1997 awarded $15,000 to the owner of a German shepherd, Sheba, who bled to death after an operation.

In 2001, the state Court of Appeals upheld an award of $126,000 to Judy Taylor of Jefferson County for the distress caused her by a couple who sold for slaughter a pair of horses that Taylor considered "her babies."

The court, in an unanimous ruling, said it was the first case of its kind in Kentucky in which a jury awarded damages for outrageous conduct and punitive damages for the loss of a pet.

Nationally, the number of these cases filed each year has climbed into the hundreds, if not thousands, including at least 10 in which verdicts have exceeded $20,000, said Rick Cupp, a Pepperdine University law professor who specializes in animal tort law.

"They are definitely on the rise, (although) not yet well-accepted in the courts," Cupp said.

That may change because more attorneys are concentrating on animal law and about a dozen law schools now offer courses in animal law, Cupp said.

States also are moving to give pet owners more legal recourse. In 2000, Tennessee became the first state to pass a law giving a pet owner the right to collect damages for loss of companionship.

Illinois passed a similar law two years later. Part of the reason for the heightened interest, Cupp said, is that people today have a different mind-set toward animals,

They are now viewed as emotional companions and sometimes building families with pets instead of children, Cupp said.

"People are buying their pets clothes and birthday presents now," said Cupp, who is single and has two dogs.

The flip side to the heightened interest in animals is doctors will pay more in malpractice insurance and order unnecessary tests as a precaution.

"A lot of vets will have to leave vet medicine" if lawsuits drive up premiums," said Sharon Granskog, assistant director of communications for The American Veterinary Medical Association. "Eventually it will mean less health care for pets."

So far, the rise in lawsuits has not affected daily veterinarian practice or insurance rates in Kentucky, said Dr. Thomas Day, who owns Louisville Veterinary Emergency Service in Louisville. Although Day said he's faced only one lawsuit in more than 17 years of practice, he believes "it's going to catch up to us at some point."

Levine said his lawsuit isn't about the money. He and his attorney both said the case will turn on rejecting the law's view of an animal as property.

"Property doesn't love you back," Levine said. "I can love my car but my car will never love me. ... Pets love you back."

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Information from: The Courier-Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)