Q: Please help!! My dog may have been abandoned by the family that adopted her from me. Can I sue them for that?
My 7 y/o dog Sam has aggression towards my toddlers, so we found a new home for her without toddlers. The new family that adopted her was well aware of all of her behavioral issues and I have texts to prove it. They adopted her for free last November. I got a call from animal control 3 weeks ago (August) saying Sam was found on a farm road/field approx 2 cities away from where the family lived (they live on an Air Force base), and she had no collar. Turns out they never changed her microchip info so I picked her up ASAP. Animal control told me that bc there was no collar and bc she was so far away from base, it looked like abandonment. Took her to the vet, they found a yeast bacterial infection, months overdue on Rabies, and she wouldn’t drink any water for days. Her aggression has worsened, so she’s now on anxiety meds but now fights with my other dog. I have texts to prove I told the family to contact me if it didn’t work out with her. Can I sue them for abandonment or medical bills?
A:
You can report them to law enforcement for animal cruelty. I don't know how that would be proven since they could argue that the dog simply ran away versus being abandoned.
Refusal to drink water doesn't make any sense unless she has a mouth injury, urinary tract infection or rabies. I wouldn't keep the dog in my home until she was cleared.
As for a lawsuit, if you had a contract for them to take in the dog but return it to you in the event that the dog was not appropriate for that environment, and they breached the contract by abandoning the dog, you could theoretically sue in Small Claims for the veterinary bills. You still have the problem of proving abandonment versus simply running away, though. If the dog ran away, they didn't breach the contract.
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