For thirty years, Italian case law has been dealing, albeit episodically and with varying results, with the issue of the non-pecuniary value of the relationship between humans and animals in order to assess the admissibility or non-admissibility of a compensation profile. This article aims to analyse the current situation, with the latest developments in the courts of merit, starting from the studies with which Silvana Castignone initiated the legal reflections in the 1990s, and to grasp what is still relevant today.