Contaminated pet food

By now you've all heard about the contaminated pet food problem. Unfortunately people who lost pets to the poisoned food or whose animals became ill probably won't get much in the way of legal reparations since the harmed party is an animal, a mere piece of property in the eyes of the law, if you will.

Part of me understands that to open up the field of emotional damages lawsuits to include one's pets would be to open a door to frivolous lawsuit that could never be closed again. Just think: all those people who are the type to spend $5,000+ on Fluffy's kidney transplant would start demanding huge sums for harm inflicted on their pet.

On the other hand, the compassionate side of me says why not? Pets are part of our families: beloved and loving. If something happened to Daxie, I don't know what I'd do. If he had been a victim of the tainted pet food, I'd be furious. He's not a "purebred" so he's technically not worth money as property, but he's priceless to me. I've taken care of him and loved him for many years. If some company made a shitty product that harmed him, why shouldn't they be held liable?

I'm interested to see how this all plays out over the next few months. I hope some sort of reasonable balance is found. But knowing those crazy American pet owners, it's probably gonna be over the top.