Having your pet stay at a kennel while you’re out traveling will typically ensure your furry friend is safe and cared for when you’re away. Unfortunately, this was not the case for a Georgia family whose vacation was ruined when their kennel left them a voicemail saying that their beloved dog had died. “Vacation is a mess. I’m upset, husband is upset, kids are a mess,” the wife tragically remarks in a post to Reddit. However, the worst thing about this awful situation is that the kennel was allegedly at fault — for letting the dog die of food poisoning.
“It was their food,” the Georgia mom says in her Reddit post to r/legaladvice. Right after the family got back home from their vacation, they contacted their vet immediately. The vet was shocked to hear the news, as their dog was young and had been healthy since the latest checkup. After the pet had been taken in for an autopsy, it was apparent to everyone that it had died due to food poisoning and negligence for its evident symptoms. OP spoke of the autopsy’s results:
“Results are very, very clear that this was something that they would have seen. Vet reviews autopsy, says there was no way there was no symptoms.”
Likely very frustrated, she returns to the kennel to show them the medical report of how the Georgia family dog had died. The worker “read the report and immediately gets very scared,” a telltale sign that something was not right from the start. Since the big reveal, the kennel has since “gone dead silent,” according to OP. “[Our] vacation was ruined by this. What can I do about this?” She goes on to say that the dog was not a rescue or stray but was an AKC-bred dog that cost the family thousands of dollars. However, the post’s top commenter believes that value will be hard to get back.
“You can sue the kennel. It isn’t perfectly clear whether the autopsy is a recoverable cost. Beyond that, you’re undoubtedly recovering fair market value for the dog.” In other words, the money received will be mainly based on the current market value of the dog, as the court would have to see it as ‘property’ owned by the parents. Even so, many believe that it would be “EXTREMELY hard to win against a kennel.” The reason would be that, in the agreement form the family signed before leaving the dog, the kennel could avoid responsibility for the death of the pet if everything was done right ‘in its eyes.’
Whatever the case, it’s likely not about the money in this case for OP but rather the lack of accountability and empathy the kennel had when taking care of the dog. If the vet, parents, and even kennel staff could clearly see that food poisoning was the cause of death from the autopsy, the kennel needs to take the blame.
