I didn’t read the contract and now I’ve received a solicitor’s letter accusing me of theft?

[LostForWords2021]

I’ve NC and have posted in legal matters for further help.

At the beginning of the first lockdown a friend contacted me from a rescue centre. They had an old dog in the pound due to be PTS and asked if I could foster him.

I’m a dog lover, always had foster dogs and at the time I was able to agree for a short period so she put me in touch with the rescue people, they made a FB chat group inc a vet nurse and we made arrangements for them to drop him to our house.

He was the most loving and adorable old boy, it was obvious he was old, he was falling over off his legs and had a few other old age issues but he was very grateful for a 2nd chance and I sorted some homeopathic medicines whilst we sorted a vet check out (This was all communicated over the chat group)

They sent me a foster contract which I signed and returned but, as he wasn’t meant to be with us very long I didn’t read and we just got on with a lovely weather lockdown with the poor old sod.

After a few months he became really unwell, I kept them up to date and their vet nurse advised what to say at the appointments- we paid for all the treatment - unfortunately we used a new vet who was very close by and they were dreadful, really, really bad. I still have all the messages pleading I make a complaint about the treatment we did and didn’t receive.

At this point they asked if we wanted to adopt him and we said yes because we loved him and couldn’t see him surviving another new owner. This was all on the group chat but no foster contract signed.

I’ve always lived by measuring our pets happiness, play and pain and this poor lad was deteriorating fast with many post surgery issues, he wasn’t engaging with us and we made the horrible decision to let him go pain free after many, many vet visits and sleepless nights. Covid meant we couldn’t even be with him, it was heart breaking but the right choice.

We informed them of the decision on the group chat and left.

I’ve received a solicitor letter accusing me of breach of contract and offering me a chance to respond to their questions. What do I do?

We knew it was all a bit underhanded, during lockdown, no assessment or involvement etc. I’ve always fostered (and failed fostered ha ha) and unfortunately also had to make this tough decision before.

Never had an issue with previous rescues and assumed the same with this one. So sad reall.

And I still can’t find them as a registered charity

Have they seen the notes? Under GDPR if the dog was registered to you it's your personal data and cannot be shared without your permission

@Veterinari

Have they seen the notes? Under GDPR if the dog was registered to you it's your personal data and cannot be shared without your permission

Sorry just saw you gave permission.

Tbh this sounds like a disreputable control freak masquerading as a charity

@Veterinari

Have they seen the notes? Under GDPR if the dog was registered to you it's your personal data and cannot be shared without your permission

I did give them consent because they pushed so much for us to make a complaint because of the lack of care given.

After the first op we picked him up with a catheter in place at midnight so I had to learn to drain it.

They had a head vet nurse from medivet answering on group chat telling me what meds and painkillers our boy should have had and wasn’t given and showed us med charts from her practice with what we should have been offered.

It was so stressful and compounded by covid because we couldn’t go in with our boy or really get properly involved in his care.

The vet advised PTS which we said no thank you to and after two weeks of failed surgeries and being advised by the same vet that the condition he was left in was how he would always be we chose to let him not suffer anymore.

They = the rescue

Try not to stress. You did nothing wrong. When the legal matter bis over, do come back and tell us the name of this 'charity'.

What's the name of the rescue? Sounds a v odd way to behave.

The treatment sounds unusual - being discharge with a urinary catheter is odd.

It may be worth a complaint if you feel standard of care was lacking abd it nay be better suggesting to the charity that this nay result in a more meaningful outcome