Attorney Lets the Fur Fly and Tips Tails of Justice

Some of attorney Robert Newman’s best clients have pawed him, clawed him and growled in his face. One even bit his ankle--after the case was won.

There was Jasper, a show terrier, Rusty, a German shepherd, and among his favorites, Shredder the cat.

Newman is among about 60 attorneys statewide who frequently represent pet owners in cases involving animal rights, veterinary malpractice, neighborhood disputes and animals mistakenly put to death at the pound.

Like many of the attorneys, Newman earns his living mostly through run-of-the-mill court cases involving humans. But he has a special interest in clients with tails, wings, scales or fur.

Although he has always been concerned about animal rights, the Santa Ana attorney’s first four-footed client was his own pet. In 1995, Newman’s apartment managers in Lake Forest demanded that his 3-year-old cat, Shredder, be declawed. The attorney took them to court and won, and has since represented about a dozen other animals in court on a range of issues, including the right to bark and the freedom to roam a backyard unfettered.

“I went into this knowing that some clients would have trouble paying me, but it doesn’t matter,” Newman said. “I feel like I have a chance here to do what’s in the best interest of animals.”

Newman and about 450 other lawyers nationwide belong to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, a group formed in the early 1980s. Its members, said spokeswoman Jeanne McVey, have continued to make strides in animal rights laws.

“It used to be that animals were just property . . . and you could only recover the cost of the animal,” McVey said. “But in recent years, we are seeing more judges who are willing to give emotional distress awards when an animal is maliciously abused or killed.”

One of the largest settlements in California for emotional distress from the death of a pet was $30,000 paid to an Encino family.

The case involved Bud, a German shepherd shot to death by a security guard in 1995, said Encino attorney Michael Rotsten, who represented the family.

While they were away in Texas, a security guard checking the home stopped to talk to a man walking Bud for a local pet-sitting service. Another security guard arrived, and Bud bounded toward him. The first guard then reached for his gun and fired three shots, killing the dog, Rotsten said. The security firm and the owners settled the case out of court.

“This dog was a member of the family,” Rotsten said. “And when a member of your family gets hurt or in this case, is killed, people get very upset and deserve to be compensated.”

Rotsten is now arguing another case before a Municipal Court judge in Santa Ana involving an animal shelter that euthanized the wrong dog, a Catahoula hound.

Rotsten, who is among a handful of lawyers nationwide whose practice is devoted only to animals, also represented the Orange County owners of a bull mastiff named Boo. In 1996, the dog attacked an 8-year-old Yorba Linda boy, who required stitches. The county’s animal control agency declared the dog vicious and twice set a date for its euthanasia, but Rotsten successfully fought to save Boo’s life.

Jasper was not as fortunate. While undergoing a procedure at a veterinarian’s office to help it breathe easier, the terrier received too much anesthesia and died of respiratory failure, according to the lawsuit Newman filed. The veterinarian paid the owners an undisclosed amount in an out-of-court settlement.

“Courts are finally allowing individuals to recover from whoever destroys an animal,” Newman said. “This is a new shift. . . . It used to be that animals were ours to do [with] as we please. But more and more, they are being recognized as sentient beings, and they should be treated as such.”

But animal law can be frustrating, attorneys said. Sometimes, love blinds clients to what’s best for their pets. For example, a Dana Point woman who had 19 cats in her two-bedroom home (17 over the city limit) “just would not listen to me,” Newman said. “All she wanted to know was how she would get to keep all 19 cats. There was nothing I could do for her.”

Eventually, the woman had to relinquish all but two cats, Newman said.

“These animals are truly everything to them, but that’s not always an easy thing to understand,” he said.

Sometimes his animal clients also fail to appreciate their counsel.

Rusty the German shepherd, for example, had been in trouble with the neighbors for barking too much, and Newman had succeeded in his fight to allow the family to keep the dog. The triumphant lawyer was bidding farewell when his Rusty expressed his ingratitude.

“Rusty and I were getting along famously,” Newman said. “But when I went to hug the wife good-bye, Rusty, being a little protective, rushed at me and bit my ankle.”