Sienna, a 4-year-old labradoodle-pit bull mix with no special training, is being praised for helping alert others to a man's oncoming seizure.

“Never, never be afraid to do what is right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

A New York judge recently set a new legal precedent regarding man’s best friend. After a dog named Duke was killed in a car crash, the court recognized that his death was not just a property loss. It was the loss of a relationship with a family member whose life mattered.

This is the first time in New York that emotional harm (rather than loss of property value) from the death of a dog has been recognized in this way.