But in some cases lawyers have persuaded courts to award added damages for loss of companionship or for the emotional distress of the owner when a pet is killed. The case of the dead sheep, Mr. Wise said, could help establish that market value is not adequate compensation. The sheep owners, a childless taxidermist and his wife, Mr. Wise said, were attached to the animals. The strategy of lawyers practicing animal law has included a campaign to increase the criminal penalties for animal cruelty. In 1994, all but six states regarded such violations as misdemeanors, punishable by small fines and short jail terms.
Lawyers often provide prosecutors with legal assistance to make such prosecutions stick.
In one case, involving cruelty to turtles, lawyers provided a veterinarian as an expert witness. The veterinarian testified that elevated heart and respiration rates showed that turtles do suffer. Anti-cruelty laws typically declare that people cannot be prosecuted for standard farming practices, like beef slaughtering. But there have been some felony prosecutions involving malicious mistreatment or torture of farm animals. Last month in northeastern North Carolina, a district attorney, Frank R. Parrish, announced the state's first felony animal cruelty indictment.