Virginia Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice Blog

What Happens When Pets Get Sick By Pet Food?

Every so often we get a question like this:

Hello, I fed my cat's the XXX main choice cat food. My  kitty died on Monday 10/13/2008, bleeding out her mouth, she had thrown up cat food by her.

My daughter whose cat it is found her laying on our porch at 9:30 AM she likes to sit in the chairs on our porch ans sun bathe. My daughter called me at working crying hysterically that cat was her best friend she has not eaten anything and has been in bed since monday afternoon. My other cat ($650.00)is now throwing up also, I just seen this on our news channel ( fox2) last night.  and I am hoping you can point me in the right direction this has and still is very tramatic for my daughter. I stopped feeding her the cat food last night, we also have a 3rd cat which I am trying to watch closely.

I am very upset and would like the people or person responsible for this horrific event to pay. Our cats we are family members we have had them since kittens and they are ( where ) only 5 years old, so now my daughter not just once but will be going through this 2X and a possible 3. Please help

Here's the answer at least as it applies to Virginia:

if an animan is killed or destroyed by negligence you may be able to recover the reasonable value of the animal plus reasonable vet bills.

You can't recover for your own grief of loss. The "value" of the animal is generally what the animal might cost to replace it, not sentimental value