Posted on 01/07/2005 11:57:33 AM PST by ambrose
The New Paper - 08 Jan 2005
Pet shop sues dead dog's owner over Net posting
By Arul John tnp@sph.com.sg
COURT recently handled an unusual case - two people embroiled in a fight over a dead puppy.
The fight erupted after the 3-month-old puppy, a Jack Russell terrier, died soon after it was bought from a pet shop.
The disappointed pet owner posted an Internet message to say the shop knowingly sold him a sick puppy.
The angry shop owner, a woman, sued the buyer for defamation.
The case, believed to be the first of its kind here, was settled amicably after the buyer agreed to apologise.
The tussle is believed to have cost the parties about $20,000 in total, for damages and legal fees.
It all started from a message the puppy's owner, shipping clerk Wilson Tan, 30, posted on an Internet discussion forum a week before the puppy, which he named Jasper, died on Feb 29 last year.
He accused Mr William Lim, who runs The Puppy Shop near Chua Chu Kang, of selling him a dog which was sick.
He also accused Mr Lim of pretending to be an animal specialist and being dishonest.
He urged people not to patronise the shop.
Mr Lim's daughter, Ms Sharon Lim, 31, who owns the shop, saw the Internet message. She and her father sued Mr Tan.
According to court documents, Mr Tan bought the puppy for $1,008 from Mr Lim on Jan 25 last year. As he did not have the money himself, he and five other friends chipped in to pay for the dog.
VACCINATED
At the time of the purchase, Mr Lim said the dog was properly vaccinated and he even made sure it was healthy before selling it.
But Mr Tan claimed the puppy became very sick soon after he took it home.
He said that in early February, the puppy was treated for blood in its stools. Barely two weeks later, it also started coughing and having diarrhoea.
He took the dog to Mount Pleasant Animal Clinic (North), where a vet told him the puppy was abnormal and needed more tests.
Three days later, he said the puppy collapsed and was taken to Mount Pleasant Animal Hospital (MPAH).
On Feb 24, Mr Tan posted the defamatory Internet message.
A medical report on Feb 25 by hospital veterinarians Anthony Goh and Boon Chia Yun said the puppy had 'a circling gait and incoordination'.
It also had neurological problems that might have been caused by an infection or a birth defect.
Another veterinarian who examined the dog, Dr Carolyn Carlson of the Animal Recovery Centre, said its left side was weak and its skull was swollen because of possible fluid buildup in the brain.
She added that such conditions were often inborn, but neither she nor the other veterinarians Mr Tan visited could pinpoint the cause of the puppy's condition.
In the end, all the treatments failed - Jasper was put to sleep on Feb 29 and cremated the same day.
On Mar 1, Ms Lim went into the Internet discussion forum and saw Mr Tan's message.
She filed a police report the next day and later went to court.
A two-day trial was to have started on Wednesday, but after both parties met the the judge in chambers, they decided to settle the dispute out of court.
Lawyer David Rasif, who represented Mr Lim and the pet shop, said Mr Tan agreed to pay an undisclosed sum in damages.
The New Paper understands the damages amounted to a few thousand dollars.
Mr Rasif added that Mr Tan agreed to post an apology in the same Internet forum where his defamatory remarks appeared.
In the message, he indicated that he 'unreservedly apologised' to Mr Lim and The Puppy Shop for his 'unjustified and unfair' comments on the Farmart Centre website.
When contacted, Ms Lim said: 'We are satisfied with the judgment. We run an honest business and our puppies' health and the homes they go to are our first priority.
'Veterinarians check our puppies every week. That is why we were upset and humiliated at the unjustified and unfair comments in the message.'
Mr Tan's lawyer, Ms Jeanny Ng, said they persuaded the Lims to settle for less than they had earlier asked for.
After the case, Mr Tan said he wished he had not been so impulsive.
He said he had wanted to write about his experience but admitted that it was wrong of him to make the defamatory remarks.
He said he now has another puppy, a Bichon Frise, named Richie, and wanted to put the case behind him.
He said: 'I got the dog from friends and Richie is sensitive to my moods. He comes to me when he sees I am down and hangs around until I feel better.'
..
This is a good lesson for those among FReepers who would go off half-cocked because of bad service somewhere and post a thread. I did it myself once. You better be right!
Another lesson would be to not buy puppies from pet stores, which often get their animals from large-scale breeding operations (known as "puppy mills"). Puppy mills are notorious for not paying attention to preventing genetic health problems. Dogs from pet stores are also ridiculously overpriced!
I agree, I'll take my boxer mutt from the pound over any puppy store puppy (no matter how cute) any day!
"Another lesson would be to not buy puppies from pet stores, which often get their animals from large-scale breeding operations (known as "puppy mills")."
True
"Puppy mills are notorious for not paying attention to preventing genetic health problems."
"Dogs from pet stores are also ridiculously overpriced!"
True but it's only because the pet store pays ridiculous square footage leasing costs, pet care(food, yes-vet bills, pet housing). Many pet stores nurse puppy mill pets back to a normal state of health. Pet stores rarely profit from the sale of actual pets, most break even on live pet sales. The only reason pet stores even bother with having live pets for sale is to lure customers in and sell all the related products. The pets are a hook, operating just like any other retail outlet. The first objective is getting customers through the door, the nexy objective, making a sale. People will take the time to research and cost compare an auto purchase more than they do for pet purchases and baby adoptions. Sad but true.
" Nursing it far along to get some sucker to buy it, take it home, fall in love with it, only to have it die within a few months or even weeks "
True in the sense of cents but why not look at the bigger picture with wisdom. If we are to be humane to all living things why not look at the situation as the glass half full than half empty. Instead of thinking of the pet buyers as suckers I look at the buyer as a compassionate person who "chose" to give another living thing a loving caring home with food even if it has a limited number of days on earth just like we view disabled or terminally ill children from third world countries or where ever. Look at all the wonderful people who adopt those children. Should humanity view them as suckers for taking on the burden of giving comfort to terminally ill children(or animals) in the last days of their life? Remember animals just like human babies are born innocent. They can't help how they were born, what, when or where.
I don't claim to have all the answers but I have gotten my pets from both pet stores(one healthy, one I nursed back from serious ill health) and the others from shelters. You would be suprised how many unpopular puppy breeds never get purchased and pass the puppy stage, can no longer fit in the stores puppy cubicles, cages hence get shuffled around from shelter to shelter. Sad way to come into life and exit life. It isn't the puppies fault it wasn't wanted by anyone so it shouldn't suffer the endless shuffling it experiences. Pet store pets deserve just as much compassion as shelter pets. It's the people who need monitoring and reprimanding for operating deplorable puppy mills and those certain pet stores who enable puppy mill operators.
While I'm not suggesting those dogs deserve a home less than shelter dogs, shelters are overrun by dogs bought in a pet store because they were impulse purchases, but six months later (and nonreturnable) are too much for the family to handle.
IMHO, shelter dog is the way to go if you don't have a specific breed in mind, or reputable breeder with papers for purebreds. YMMV.
"While I'm not suggesting those dogs deserve a home less than shelter dogs, shelters are overrun by dogs bought in a pet store because they were impulse purchases, but six months later (and nonreturnable) are too much for the family to handle."
So the impulse buyer holds much of the blame as the pet store owner for the cycle of enablement and extra burden put upon animal shelters for their wreckless impulsive wants and irresponsible pet dumping.
Absolutely agree. I guess the only issue I have is that pet stores are in strip malls and other walk-in locations, which make impulse purchases more prevalent, and they will not take the dog back and try to resell it, whereas shelters don't turn any dogs away.
Either way, I do wish every dog had a loving and forever home, no matter how or where it was brought into this world!
We shouldn't think that our anonymous screen names provide protection, because they don't. If the stakes are high enough, any one of us can be hunted down and made to pay for legally defamatory comments.
agree.
Go to a breeder or adopt from a shelter for a healthier less expensive animal. Breed rescue is also great.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.