First, let me say that if someone had offered me a million dollars to poison Chuckles back in December, they would have been lucky to have left my property in an ambulatory condition. While some folks would say anyone who wouldn’t accept such an offer, then just get another pet, is crazy, most pet owners fully understand why no amount of money could compensate us for such a loss. Good, bad or indifferent, money is the tool our society uses to balance injustice. In spite of the fact it is a criminal offense, both to abuse pet animals and to sell adulterated food, to the best of my knowledge, no criminal charges have ever been leveled at a pet food company for their criminal acts in an endless series of deadly pet food recalls. Under the circumstances, the only justice any of those of us affected by the criminal acts of corporate America will find is through the process of civil actions. If money is the only tool of justice available to me, then by all I hold dear, I am going to make those responsible for murdering Chuckles pay for their criminal acts. The way I feel about the situation, a million dollars would be fair. The situation couldn’t have been worse than if someone had kicked in my front door and shot Chuckles dead while we were sitting together watching a movie. How do you put a price on something like that? The obvious answer is you can’t. There is no practical way to quantify the bond between pets and their owners. It should be, however, possible to quantify justice. How often have we heard a parent tell a child, “Don’t touch that honey. It looks expensive.”? The level of care others display toward the property of another is often determined by the perception of liability if the property were damaged through a careless or malicious act. Recent cases are emerging which place a special value on pets at $30,000. While far less than a million dollars, and far more than the price of a new kitten, it does recognize that pets have a special value to their owners, and that pet owners deserve to have the special value of their pets respected by others. Justice demands that pet owners be able to tell the pet food companies, “Don’t poison my pet. It’s expensive.”. Our justice system is passing strange in places. The conventional wisdom is to join a class action because the attorneys will represent you for “free”. Unfortunately, all too often, this “free” service means the attorneys are the only ones who get paid. A $20,000,000 settlement, with ten million class members, works out to a buck and a quarter each after the attorneys take a third off the top. There is huge overhead in these kind of cases, and it would be unreasonable to expect anyone to take them without being able to recover those costs, but, at a certain point, the incentive to push a case to a limit approaching true justice for the plaintiffs is lacking. For myself, I do not want to wait 5 years, only to receive a coupon good for a two day supply of poisoned pet food. As I understand the situation, any claim over $75,000 automatically puts the matter in the hands of the Federal Courts. Chuckles died in my home, from poisoned food sold to me near my home. I do not want to travel to New Jersey in order to hold those responsible accountable. So, in order to force those responsible to the scene of their crimes, it is necessary to stay below $75,000. At the end of the day, while no amount would compensate me for my loss, maybe something close to that amount would feel like justice. I want those responsible to look me in the eye and know what they did was unthinkably evil. I want justice terrible enough that to the end of their days, they will never poison another Chuckle cat. I want my day in court, in front of a jury of my peers. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I also want the kind of America I was told of as a child in school. I believe our forefathers dreamed good dreams, and the America they dreamed of is a good place. When I find myself saying, “This is a terrible thing! Someone should do something!”, I need to stop, and instead say, “I am someone. What can I do?”. During the darkest days of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine said, "These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.". So here’s to conflict. If you don’t fight, you can’t win.