Seville’s veterinary clinic condemned to compensate a woman for losing the ashes of her year’s cat

The Court of First Instance No. 3 of Seville has condemned a veterinary clinic to compensate with 800 euros to a client for the loss of its cat’s ashes, UMI, which did not reach the year of age.

As reported by the General Council of Spanish Advocacy, the family urgently led the veterinary hospital to the feline, where, due to its serious condition, they opted for compassionate euthanasia. They also requested and paid individual incineration to conserve their ashes. However, the clinic made an error and incinerated it with other animals.

The couple, who had great affection for the cat he had raised since childhood even with a bottle, wanted to have their ashes to commemorate their memory.

Therefore, he expressly requested the clinic to proceed to the individual’s individual incineration, although from the first moment it was not clear how it wanted to be done, and to facilitate their remains. The couple contacted on several occasions with the clinic to ask for explanations and request the delivery of their animal’s remains, although he did not receive an answer.

After several unanswered applications, the clinic admitted the mistake and reimbursed the difference between individual and collective incineration. LOla García, a family defense lawyer, emphasizes that this sentence marks a precedent in the Spanish jurisprudence by recognizing moral damage due to the loss of an animal, beyond veterinary negligence in its medical treatment.

“Without a doubt, the change in the legal regime of animals after the reform of the Civil Code has meant a crucial advance for Spanish society, since animals and their memory are part of the family, a multispecie family that still does not have the full recognition of the legal system. However, thanks to pioneer sentences like this, the door opens to new claims,” ​​says Garcia.

According to Garcia, according to this article, all the cohabiting ones have the right to be compensated when the injury or death of an animal for moral damage occurs, and not only the head of the chip (the mother), so that a resource has been presented that would mean a total compensation for the quantified family in more than 3,000 euros.