Can I take legal action? Dog related trigger warning

[Ellythe]

My dog is my baby. I got her 3 years before my child died and she helped me through it all and she knew him.

I am currently in the USA, waiting for a plane home 8 days earlier than planned because I got a call from the woman looking after my dog saying that her Mastiff has mauled my dog and she has lost a leg and an eye in the fight. I've seen the cctv footage and my dog walked near her dog and he lunged at her and then attacked her.

Shockingly the boarder doesn't notice the interaction between the dogs until her neighbour comes running into her house shouting because she can hear my dog yelping and screaming. At the time of the fight the person I paid to look after my dog was grooming another dog and in a completely separate area of the unit. The other person insured to look after the dogs was out at the shop and so there were 5 day care dogs and 4 home boarding dogs + her own 3 dogs.

What is my legal recourse?

I want her to pay for my dog's treatment, the flights etc.

I would never have let her look after my dog if I realised she wasn't in the same area as the dogs. I didn't realise that dogs were being left completely unattended for up to 6 hours whilst she's grooming.

For the avoidance of doubt my dog didn't do anything to cause her dog to attack her, she merely walked passed him and he just went for her.

She is 6 years old and I cannot lose her. She is the last connection I have to my child. I'm beside myself right now. This is hideous.

I need to know what to do next. Do I report to the council? The rspca? The police? I want to take any and all action I can.

I've read your posts @Ellythe, and I'm really pleased that Rosie appears to have turned a corner in her treatment and the antibiotics appear to be working.

In relation to your last post where you mentioned that the kennel owner was posting up to social media saying that she is the victim here, I would be sure to take photos of these posts so you can add them to your case.
I don't know if it would be beneficial to you to post up something like "Hi X, as this is now in the hands of the authorities, I don't believe that it's in your interest to be posting to social media. I've already taken a copy of this post and will be forwarding it to the relevant authorities."

At least she may get nervous and stop posting making her out to be the victim here.

How traumatising for you and your lovely dog.
I don't usually leave bad reviews but things like this make me think we should be pointing it out when bad things happen so people at least have a chance to avoid.

If you haven't already, I'd urge you to speak to Trevor or Nik at doglaw.co.uk - they're great and really helpful dog law specialists.

So sorry this has happened to your lovely little dog.

Wow that is horrific. I’m so sorry. The should be covered through their insurance.

This is why I only leave my dogs in kennels where the dogs NEVER interact. Not worth the risk at all. Dog daycares and boarders and so dangerous.

I completely agree! I had used them
Once before and it was all fine. However I really wish I'd gone for a kennel because yes it would be difficult for my dog not having any interaction with other dogs as she's so friendly I clearly made a mistake Putting her in this situation.

I'm so sorry for what you've been through - the loss of your child, and now the attack on your gorgeous little dog who helped you with your grief.

I hope that you get justice for Rosie, and are able to stop this negligent woman from being in a position to put other people's beloved family members at risk.

Aw she's beautiful 😍 Glad you got her to eat and her little tail was wagging. Poor little love. I am so sorry this has happened and all through negligence on the boarders part. Please don't beat yourself saying you should have checked this or that or put her somewhere else, hindsight can be a torturous thing. You read reviews which is what most of us would do.

Wishing your cutie a speedy recovery and hopefully this woman gets shut down.

Your poor girl. Glad she has eaten and you can get her home soon.

Alot of these details sound like someone who runs boarding and day care near me, including the social media posts if so, looks like they are still boarding and have all the dogs loose so really hoping it isn't! (If it is, then sorry)

Hope Rosie is home soon

Oh wow!

I must admit I am not a massive doggie person - bit of a cat lady - but your Rosie looks adorable.

I can honestly say I have never hard of anything so horrific with regards to animal boarding. This has actually made me cry. Rosie looks so trusting and vulnerable, bless her.

You MUST push for everything you can, i.e. all vet’s bills both now and future related, all of your additional expenses including travel costs to and from vets each day, additional flights, lost accommodation, personal trauma etc. etc.

Praying your gorgeous girl recovers as well as possible. Losing a leg and an eye doesn’t bear thinking about. That mastiff needs putting down too as he will definitely do it again.

Get this neglectful bitch closed down!!! 😡😡😡

I'm so sorry to hear what's happened to your little dog, that's truly awful.

Taking a step back on the legal question, you need to establish she was negligent. That essentially involves showing no reasonable person running a home boarding business would have acted as she did and that led to the attack / it not being stopped or prevented. Although on the face of what you say you would have a good case, it's not a wholly straightforward question and you would need a lawyer to advise properly.

The more objective the measures you can evidence she breached the better position you are in - for example if there are specific provisions of her licence that you can evidence she breached (number of dogs she had in her care, for example, or oversight requirements) that's ideal as it's an objective standard. The evidence of breaching those standards are also ideally going to be objective eg if the video you have shows the number of dogs. To the extent that evidence comes from other people (eg previous incidents or knowledge of elderly / teens being left in charge), they would need to be prepared to provide a witness statement / appear in court for it to be usable in court should you get there so it can still be very useful but the objective measures are going to help you the most.

On the three days to report to insurers someone mentioned, a failure to report doesn't avoid third party claims. The possibility of her invalidating the insurance by her actions is a real one (although that itself could help as an objective standard if she hasn't met the requirements of her insurance / maintained it) but you don't know the provisions of her insurance to judge. You direct correspondence to her and she will forward on as she chooses.

@Ellythe

Rosie is absolutely gorgeous!!

sorry I missed your reply yesterday x

im glad she's nearby & you can visit daily, I'm sure that'll help her recovery loads, especially if you can get her to eat.

how is she doing today??

how is she managing with the loss of her leg? (Which is it?). I know cats are different, but one of ours lost his leg in an argument with a car, WE were devastated, but within a very short time he was back to his nauty game of jump on the table!! We were SO surprised (& couldn't bring ourselves to tell him off about it anymore! Thankfully only used the table for paperwork, not meals) his was his back leg too, so no idea how he managed but he did)

lots of love
xx

Omg I hope your poor little cutie recovers quickly ❤️ this is so horrible 😞

How's Rosie doing?

I hope Rosie is doing better OP xxx 😢

Sorry it's been a horrible week. She's home now, I've made a complaint to the police, council, licensing and anyone who will listen. I feel sick that I let her get hurt.

The dog boarder has been suspended but she's still posting on social media about woe is me like it was my dogs fault her dog mauled mine.

I will never leave her with anyone again. If we never go abroad again because I can't leave her then so be it.

I won't share photos of her now because it's actually traumatic looking at her with stitches in her face and a shaved amputated leg.

She's adapted very well to being a tripod though! She's doing well. Still needing hand feeding and she's got a lot of pain killers on board bless her

Hi OP, this is horrendous I'm so sorry for what's happened.

I'm a home dog boarder and I only accept 1 dog at a time to ensure each dog is properly cared for and completely safe.

Mixing so many dogs, day care & boarding, using children to watch them, all are so against guidelines and she will lose her licence. Was she even insured? Did she have consent forms for mixing the dogs?

I can't believe they were left unattended, it was waiting to happen and it's so sad it was your beloved pooch.

Since this happened I've found a planning permission application with 7 objections from their neighbour complaining about dogs barking and howling for hours at a time.

I signed a contract saying that she is friendly with other dogs. Basic contract and I wish to God I'd asked more questions.

I will not stop until they are closed. The vet bill is in the thousands as she's been in hospital care has 2 operations, pain killers, fluids etc. in fairness the boarder has paid the vet bill because I made her do that.

She's saying that her insurance company won't cover the cost because she wasn't actively looking after the dogs so she asked us to pay initially and then they'd pay us back but I refused. It happened under her care, she's responsible

She's saying that her insurance company won't cover the cost because she wasn't actively looking after the dogs

I don't understand this.

She's saying the insurance company won't cover costs because she wasn't doing what she was supposed to be doing, i.e. what you were paying her for?

Wow.

I wonder if she's insured at all, and that's just an excuse.

Licence conditions differ slightly with each council but in order to be 5* she must have met Higher Standards of licence, she will have broken just about all of these with her 'care'.

Does she have all the revelant permissions for her dog grooming business?

Honestly I'd be so, so upset and angry too if I were you.

The fact is, this attack was preventable with the correct care and dog boarding procedures. She's completely negligent.

Your poor dog! That is utterly horrific. Does she have insurance? I am no legal eagle, but I would sue, sue, sue until the cows came home! Wishing your pup a quick recovery x

Perfect answer. Hope your dog is ok op. Just travel back safely xxx

Just read updates. Rosie so cute. You are amazing op. Please keep reporting. No way should this lady ever board another dog.

I'm so sorry this happened to your dog OP. You are definitely doing the right thing.

Don't ask the vet. They are not registered with the relevant bodies to offer legal advice and they would be fools to attempt to do this.

Legally, they are not even supposed to recommend a pet insurance company.

If they have had others looking after the place, i.e., they have broken the terms of their insurance, I would not mention this legally yet.

You want that insurance policy in good working order to get the vet bills paid and compensation for your flights and upset etc.

After that, let rip to stop them running their half assed business.

I would also remove this thread ASAP, see a solicitor and take it from there.

Your poor baby. I am glad she is home. It is so unthinkable. How is her behaviour now she's home? She's been through an awful ordeal, you both have.

I am glad the boarder has had her licence suspended.

I hope Rosie continues to recover well. I could honestly cry for her x