I was just watching an attorney tom video and the topic of pets came up. Attorney Tom mentioned that legally pets have no financial value and thus no legal recourse if hurt or killed, unless they happen to serve as a source of income for their owner. That got me wondering about working animals that don't make any income but aren't really pets either.

Let's say hypothetically I have a service dog for my disability, the dog and its training cost me somewhere around $10k-$30k but it doesn't make me any money. While the dog is on the job someone attacks and kills it. Do I have any grounds to sue or is this legally the same as the loss of a very expensive pet?

In addition to that I'm wondering about incidents where the dog doesn't die but does become unable to work as a result? I've seen one real case of that nature but the dogs owner chose not to pursue any legal action.