A
allikeane
Guest
Kansas
My husband and I own a pet shop. We had a personal incident happen about 3 weeks ago that is possibly going to affect the reputation of our business in the community. We have three dogs that were at home when this incident occurred. We have a fenced in backyard, and it was finally warm outside so I wanted the dogs to be able to enjoy the weather. We left the house at 9:30 AM with all three dogs in the backyard. When I returned at 12:15 PM to take the dogs back inside, our back gate was standing open and the dogs were missing. I began looking around and calling their names, and I soon found all three of them simply playing in our front yard with the neighbor’s dog which had also been mysteriously let out of their house. Once I got our dogs back inside, I noticed that one of them had a pretty torn up face and scratches on his legs and stomach. They weren't anything that I couldn't fix though, so I cleaned him up and went back to the store. Then I received a phone call from a girl's boyfriend saying that our dogs had attacked her and her dog, and that their dog was getting stitches and that she was in the emergency room. Anyway, to make a long story shorter, we got a letter from her saying that she thinks that we are totally responsible for all of her vet bills, emergency room bills, and missed time from work. I have submitted everything to our insurance agency and they are investigating to see whether or not we should be held liable. However, this woman has decided to take a step in a different direction and has started to campaign against our store. Apparently she is a friend to many of the bars in our town, and has been in them saying that my husband and I are irresponsible pet owners and have no business owning a pet store because of this. We heard all of this through one of our employees who also works at a bar she was at. The really aggravating part is that we are by far the most responsible pet store owners I have come upon. We frequently turn away purchases when a person is buying on impulse, or wants to buy an animal without purchasing the proper equipment to maintain it. Furthermore, I don't believe she is even telling the whole truth about what actually happened. She made it sound like our dogs just ran up and attacked. If that were the case though, why was one of our dogs all torn up, and why weren't they attacking our neighbor's dog too instead of playing with it? I want to know if it is legal for her to say these things about us and our shop. Her comments could potentially be very damaging to our business, and I simply want to know what rights we have in this situation.
My husband and I own a pet shop. We had a personal incident happen about 3 weeks ago that is possibly going to affect the reputation of our business in the community. We have three dogs that were at home when this incident occurred. We have a fenced in backyard, and it was finally warm outside so I wanted the dogs to be able to enjoy the weather. We left the house at 9:30 AM with all three dogs in the backyard. When I returned at 12:15 PM to take the dogs back inside, our back gate was standing open and the dogs were missing. I began looking around and calling their names, and I soon found all three of them simply playing in our front yard with the neighbor’s dog which had also been mysteriously let out of their house. Once I got our dogs back inside, I noticed that one of them had a pretty torn up face and scratches on his legs and stomach. They weren't anything that I couldn't fix though, so I cleaned him up and went back to the store. Then I received a phone call from a girl's boyfriend saying that our dogs had attacked her and her dog, and that their dog was getting stitches and that she was in the emergency room. Anyway, to make a long story shorter, we got a letter from her saying that she thinks that we are totally responsible for all of her vet bills, emergency room bills, and missed time from work. I have submitted everything to our insurance agency and they are investigating to see whether or not we should be held liable. However, this woman has decided to take a step in a different direction and has started to campaign against our store. Apparently she is a friend to many of the bars in our town, and has been in them saying that my husband and I are irresponsible pet owners and have no business owning a pet store because of this. We heard all of this through one of our employees who also works at a bar she was at. The really aggravating part is that we are by far the most responsible pet store owners I have come upon. We frequently turn away purchases when a person is buying on impulse, or wants to buy an animal without purchasing the proper equipment to maintain it. Furthermore, I don't believe she is even telling the whole truth about what actually happened. She made it sound like our dogs just ran up and attacked. If that were the case though, why was one of our dogs all torn up, and why weren't they attacking our neighbor's dog too instead of playing with it? I want to know if it is legal for her to say these things about us and our shop. Her comments could potentially be very damaging to our business, and I simply want to know what rights we have in this situation.