The Passion of the Pet Owner

What won't pet owners do for their cherished pets? With one woman dying, after stabbing a neighbor she thought stabbed her cat, and man having a fatal heart attack during surgery for injuries sustained during a scuffle over his schnauzer, various experts confirm that pets stir up strong emotions. But what do you do when someone has a pet may be troublesome (these two incidents involved pets soiling building hallways or soiling other people's yards)? If you confront them gently, will they listen, yet if you confront them aggressively, won't that make them angry? Does anyone have any suggestions?

This made Gothamist think of various animal stories where owners fought for their pets: The Russian Blue cat who went missing and was adopted by another person, only for the original owner to sue and get the cat back; the family sues friend's girlfriend whose dogsitting turned into dogkeeping; and the owner of dog electrocuted in Brooklyn may sue Con Edison. Of course, sometimes animals do things to make people crazy (or crazier), like the case of the angry homeowner who chased a girl with her dog's poo and smeared it on her or when Natasha Lyonne threated to molest a neighbor's dog. And then pets makes owners do great things, like start a radio station for animals or dye them to look like pandas.