TLDR: Vet confirms the boarding kennel definitely broke our dachshunds neck, didnt administer his meds on schedule, and didnt call us to report any sort of incident. doggo is in very expensive surgery now, unlikely to survive and the kennels not engaging me directly. He clearly suffered horribly and I am so so angry. Is there anything i can do? Can i sue them? Report them? How? What kind of lawyer even takes a case about a broken weenie dog? Does anyone know what I can do here?
So my daughter has a 5 year old dachshund. I finally beat cancer so we decided to finally take a vacation to see my parents far away, and that dog has injured his back before, and he does not travel well, so I figured that a stay at a kennel would be safer than 24 hours in the car through rough terrain.
We went to the vet 2 days prior to departure, got him all caught up on vx, and cleared as healthy for boarding. The vet sent him along with a little white bag full of every dog sedative she dared throw at him- with clearly printed instructions not to lift him, not to bathe with restraints, spine safe handling and feeding instructions- the works.
When we dropped him off, I went through all of this with the kennel staff, made sure they were comfortable with his requirements. Adamantly insisted that they call me or his vet, whose number i provided with any concerns whatsoever. They said 'No Problem', and took our daughter's little weenie dog and the extremely well labeled bag of meds and food.
11 days goes by without a peep. Neither my wife nor i, nor the vet got any messages regarding the dog. It was a lovely, well-deserved vacation. we assumed there were no issues.
The dog that came home to us that sunday morning was a howling, crying mess. I was horrified. It was heart breaking. his back was contorted; he yelped when he tried to walk, and could not lift his head without screeching in agony.
I counted his meds. They did not administer his meds on schedule. There were at least 4 days too many pills. I emailed the kennel begging them to show me his medication admin charts, some kind of documentation showing how he was bathed, his daily status, anything I could take to the vet to help lay out a treatment plan. I said i did not understand why they did not call me, i begged them to help me figure out what happened so that our dogs medical team could swiftly hammer out a path to green.
I was very polite and restrained. Chat GPT helped prune my words way, way back to make sure of that.
No response. I got one phone call at the very end of the next day but i did not pick up. I was too upset to talk. I wanted to keep all correspondence with them on record and in writing anyway.
No one who works with dogs would think for a moment that the dog they handed back to us is at all okay. Im pretty sure someone whose never seen a dog before would immediately have concern for the poor creature. This isnt okay. They fucking. broke my kids. dog.
Welp, fast forward through a long week of vet appointments- Vet confirmed he sustained a neck injury to his spine- an injury consistent with the exact bathing restraints we had cautioned so hard against.
Today he is going in for the MRI and Surgery. the estimated bill for today alone is going to be between 7 and 12 thousand US dollars. Whether he makes it or not.
This dog was my daughter's world while i was fighting cancer. every notebook she has is page after page after page of portraits of him, holding hands with her.
This is going to wipe out our savings but... we have to try. for my daughter we just have to. We'll all eat ramen for as long as we have to for him. We have to try.
My question to you, my beloved people of South Jersey; is this: i know dog kennels make you sign a lengthy waiver, this one sure did, but is there Anything i can do about this? can i report them? to whom? I am so angry. They didn't even offer us our money back, much less offer to help cover any of the vet bills. They just seem to be... ghosting and acting like this wasn't their doing, hoping i'll just... go away. I'm so so angry. Everyone around me says "sue them" but from a legal stance is that actually an option? What kind of law even is that? Is there documentation i should be asking the vet and surgeon to compile while we go through this to support a case? Is there any lawyer in the world who would actually take that on?
I dont know what to do with my anger. I dont know where to start. I dont want any more dogs to suffer at that horrible place. I know that just putting them on blast on google reviews and reddit would accomplish nothing to help our poor dog or our daughter right now so I'm trying not to do that, for now, just in case we might stand a chance in court later, im trying not to name them. For Now.
(believe me i happily will name this kennel on billboards and news outlets without shame if i run out of options to actually get them to be held legally accountable)
But seriously: other than eat the 12K bill and just.... cry.... What do I do here? What Can I legally actually do towards either getting some of our vet bills covered and or shutting this place down for good?
