Is this a good/bad faith contact breach?
We live in Michigan and have recently ecountered what we believe to be a serious problem with abuse of good faith in a seller.
We purchased a four month old kitten from a pet store. We asked several times during the process of the purchase if his shots were current and each time the attendant anwered "yes." We discovered, upon taking him to be declawed, that 1) his shots were NOT current. He was given his first round on Dec 17 2000. They are required, to maintain efficacy, to be boostered three weeks from that point. That would have been Jan. 7 2001. We purchased him on Jan. 27th and discovered this at his appointment on the 31st. We were unaware of the time required for boosters. The vet tech explained that since he did not receive them in a timely manner, his shots were null. They then needed to be restarted, which began on that day, the 31st. 2) He had developed a respiratory infection.
Then, on February 14th, we declawed and neutered him, and gave him the rabies vaccination. A week after, we took him back to get his boosters.
He was perfectly healthy for about three weeks, until he started withdrawing from us on the 10th of March. His normally bouncy, bright and loving attitude dissipated and we took him to the vet on the 13th of March to be evaluated. After bloodwork and clinical evaluation, he was diagnosed as having Feline Infectious Peritonitis, a desease that attacks the abdominal cavity and ultimately shuts down the function of internal organs and the central nervous system. Information we have learned from many sources indicates that FIP, a mutated coronavirus, can be introduced primarily (very rarely any other way) through contact with other cats that have a coronavirus. (a coronavirus can be anything from a simple case of diarrhea up to FECV, the coronavirus that can mutate into FIP.) A strictly indoor cat, as ours was, has virtually zero chance of contracting it, so the coronavirus was introduced to our cat before we purchased him.
Here is the issue: While it is not required in Michigan for pet stores to test for coronoviruses, the pet store has, in this case, lapsed in their end of the deal, so to speak. They were required to keep him current on his shots, but they didn't. Information we have seen indicates a cat who is not adequately vaccinated is very likely to develop a respiratory infection, as ours did. While not fatal unto itself, it does lead to a weakend immune system, which can allow many diseases, including FIP, to develop. Double vaccines, which he had to have, since the store lapsed in its coverage, also will lead to a weakened immune system.
We signed a contract that said that we will not hold them responsible for anything past 72 hours. This is where we fear that we may run into a roadblock. The ONLY reason we signed a contract in the first place was that we were ASSURED that he was healthy, up to date on his shots, and had been found to have no problems by a local vet. The reason his vet bills are almost 600 dollars now is that regular veterinary checkups cannot diagnose FIP; extensive testing has to be done to rule out other things and blood panels have to be run. Even when a probable diagnosis is reached of FIP, there is no sure way to tell a cat does have it for sure, except at autopsy. The fact of the matter is, if his blood profile was indicitive (it was)..if his titre test was high (it was astronomically high) and if he was presenting clinical signs (the disease eventually progressed to the point where one kidney was twice the size of the other and he could not stand up, because of the assault on his Central Nervous System).. there is an almost 100% chance that it IS in fact FIP. The other fact of the matter is that there is NO WAY that our cat could have contracted it while he was in our possession; we have no other cats, and he was NEVER outdoors. Cat to cat contact is the only way it is contracted.
While we wish this to be as much of a compassionate case as anything, speaking surgically, we were sold defective merchandise under the false pretense that it was in a sellable condition, which it was not.
Our cat has passed away at 6 months of age due to what I feel is gross negligence. A fatal disease that could most likely could have been avoided attacked his body and destroyed it.
What role do "good faith" and consumer protection play into this? We may have signed a contract, but we were assured that they had held up their end of the bargain. Their end of the bargain failed to pull through, and now we have lost our wonderful cat, whom we grew really attached to.
Even if he did by chance contract this in the 7 weeks between his birth and the time the pet store received him, should we still hold them responsible?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
We live in Michigan and have recently ecountered what we believe to be a serious problem with abuse of good faith in a seller.
We purchased a four month old kitten from a pet store. We asked several times during the process of the purchase if his shots were current and each time the attendant anwered "yes." We discovered, upon taking him to be declawed, that 1) his shots were NOT current. He was given his first round on Dec 17 2000. They are required, to maintain efficacy, to be boostered three weeks from that point. That would have been Jan. 7 2001. We purchased him on Jan. 27th and discovered this at his appointment on the 31st. We were unaware of the time required for boosters. The vet tech explained that since he did not receive them in a timely manner, his shots were null. They then needed to be restarted, which began on that day, the 31st. 2) He had developed a respiratory infection.
Then, on February 14th, we declawed and neutered him, and gave him the rabies vaccination. A week after, we took him back to get his boosters.
He was perfectly healthy for about three weeks, until he started withdrawing from us on the 10th of March. His normally bouncy, bright and loving attitude dissipated and we took him to the vet on the 13th of March to be evaluated. After bloodwork and clinical evaluation, he was diagnosed as having Feline Infectious Peritonitis, a desease that attacks the abdominal cavity and ultimately shuts down the function of internal organs and the central nervous system. Information we have learned from many sources indicates that FIP, a mutated coronavirus, can be introduced primarily (very rarely any other way) through contact with other cats that have a coronavirus. (a coronavirus can be anything from a simple case of diarrhea up to FECV, the coronavirus that can mutate into FIP.) A strictly indoor cat, as ours was, has virtually zero chance of contracting it, so the coronavirus was introduced to our cat before we purchased him.
Here is the issue: While it is not required in Michigan for pet stores to test for coronoviruses, the pet store has, in this case, lapsed in their end of the deal, so to speak. They were required to keep him current on his shots, but they didn't. Information we have seen indicates a cat who is not adequately vaccinated is very likely to develop a respiratory infection, as ours did. While not fatal unto itself, it does lead to a weakend immune system, which can allow many diseases, including FIP, to develop. Double vaccines, which he had to have, since the store lapsed in its coverage, also will lead to a weakened immune system.
We signed a contract that said that we will not hold them responsible for anything past 72 hours. This is where we fear that we may run into a roadblock. The ONLY reason we signed a contract in the first place was that we were ASSURED that he was healthy, up to date on his shots, and had been found to have no problems by a local vet. The reason his vet bills are almost 600 dollars now is that regular veterinary checkups cannot diagnose FIP; extensive testing has to be done to rule out other things and blood panels have to be run. Even when a probable diagnosis is reached of FIP, there is no sure way to tell a cat does have it for sure, except at autopsy. The fact of the matter is, if his blood profile was indicitive (it was)..if his titre test was high (it was astronomically high) and if he was presenting clinical signs (the disease eventually progressed to the point where one kidney was twice the size of the other and he could not stand up, because of the assault on his Central Nervous System).. there is an almost 100% chance that it IS in fact FIP. The other fact of the matter is that there is NO WAY that our cat could have contracted it while he was in our possession; we have no other cats, and he was NEVER outdoors. Cat to cat contact is the only way it is contracted.
While we wish this to be as much of a compassionate case as anything, speaking surgically, we were sold defective merchandise under the false pretense that it was in a sellable condition, which it was not.
Our cat has passed away at 6 months of age due to what I feel is gross negligence. A fatal disease that could most likely could have been avoided attacked his body and destroyed it.
What role do "good faith" and consumer protection play into this? We may have signed a contract, but we were assured that they had held up their end of the bargain. Their end of the bargain failed to pull through, and now we have lost our wonderful cat, whom we grew really attached to.
Even if he did by chance contract this in the 7 weeks between his birth and the time the pet store received him, should we still hold them responsible?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.