Dog Damages Car in Auto Accident

A funny thing happened on the way home from the dog show.  A 16 year old new driver turned left in front of us because she didn't realize she was in the right hand lane of a one way road.  As a result, we were involved in - what turned out to be - a life altering auto accident. 

While my friend, my daughter and I all suffered injuries in the auto accident - it shouldn't surprise you to learn that our dogs that were riding in the car were injured in the accident as well.

Before I go further, I should probably explain that we were on our way home from a conformation dog show.  Conformation dog showing is like a beauty pageant for dogs.  It's where dog breeders compete to put titles on their breeding stock.  The reason is because the offspring of two conformation champions are worth more money than the offspring from two dogs who are not conformation champions.

In the world of dogs, the more titles you have on your dog - the more valuable the puppies will be.  This is important because when you're determining what your auto accident damages are worth - there's a lot of weight placed on the financial damages you've suffered.

When your lawyer is gathering the facts surrounding your case, he or she will ask you a lot of questions - questions which may make you feel uncomfortable. 

In the end - he or she may give you some answers that you don't like hearing.  That was the case with the damages our dogs suffered in our auto accident.

As I said, we were on our way home from a conformation dog show.  We had riding in our car - two of the most promising stud dogs in our breed.  The key word here - PROMISING.

All of the dogs in the car were a rare breed - that's why we traveled to shows together.  Because there are less than 100 puppies born in our breed each year - we tend to find each other and show together - because if we don't make such pre-arrangements - we will usually find we're the only one in the breed ring at most shows.

If our dogs had been finished champions - we might have been able to produce enough evidence to support our claim of damages to our dogs.  However, since our dogs were mere puppies - on their way to what I believe was just their third or fourth show - we had very little HARD EVIDENCE which we could produce to prove our dogs were as valuable as we thought they were.

One of the most FRUSTRATING aspects of our case was that because of the age of our dogs at the time of the accident - there were no "facts" we could use to create evidence.

We could say, "He's the only intact male in the show ring today who is not directly related to 90% of the breeding pool.".... to a breed insider, this was important.  To lawyers who knew nothing about dogs - it meant nothing and was just idle chatter.

When my male dog was x-rayed to have his hips cleared for breeding 13 months after the accident - one hip did not clear.  Hip displaysia is a huge issue in most breeds and getting x-rays to "clear" a dog for breeding is a common practice.  Many breeders will refuse to breed to a dog whose hips have not been cleared. 

My vet said that the fact that only ONE hip did not clear was unusual.  As a matter of fact, the vet ASKED if my dog had been in a car accident.  He was surprised when he learned that my dog hadn't been HIT by a car as he suspected, but rather had been riding in a crate and had been injured in our car accident.

Now, here's the ugly part - because I didn't choose the right attorney for my auto accident case - my vet's testimony was never collected nor entered into evidence. 

I get it.  I understand that because we hadn't had hip x-rays taken BEFORE the auto accident - and then taken AFTER the auto accident that it made it more difficult to prove that my dog's injuries were a direct result of the accident.   However, I've since learned that the vet's opinion could have acted as evidence in our case.

When I learned his left hip wouldn't clear - I didn't finish his championship.  Our breed lost a valuable out cross stud which was desperately needed.In the end, I didn't get a dime for the injuries which prevented my dog from being used as a stud dog.  It's a shame. 

I don't know if my lawyer didn't pursue damages for my dog's injuries because there was no basis in case law - or whether he was just lazy.  However, from the way the whole case played out - it looks to me as if he was just lazy.. and that was a darned shame.