About three weeks ago, my husband’s cousin Amy lost her dog, a small terrier type. She had a regular dog walker that took Kaiya out for on-leash walks along with a few other dogs. This is an insured and bonded company.
Anyhow, Amy’s dog walker calls her and says that during the walk Kaiya somehow got away. The dog walker said she’d gone after her, but last she saw her she was running in (direction toward one edge of the very, very large park). Amy leaves work and goes looking for the dog with no success, and makes up 125 posters which she posts all over the park and surrounding neighborhoods. Amy also hired a company that has tracking dogs to try and find her (overkill, yeah, but it’s her prerogative). They found a scent but did not find Kaiya. Amy held out hope for a few weeks and members of the family went out looking for Kaiya daily.
Last week, Amy gets a call from a woman who just got back from vacation and had seen the posters. This woman saw what really happened. The dog walker was walking both on and off leash dogs, and the off leash dogs saw some coyotes and took off after them. The dog walker dropped Kaiya’s leash and Kaiya apparently ran off after the dogs. Both the dog walker and this woman SAW Kaiya get eaten by a coyote! The dog walker got the off leash dogs back and just left! And then lied about what happened.
I think Amy’s asking for an apology, the cost of Kaiya, and the cost of the posters. Apparently the owner is being an asshole about it.
Amy should consult a lawyer, who will quite likely take the case on a contingency basis. I would guess that Amy will get an out of court settlement which will amount to much more than the cost of the dog and posters. She should not feel guilty about doing this, as the dog walking company’s owner has been an asshole about it.
?? The “eaten by a coyote” rings strange to me. Are you/your cousin sure about the credibility of this woman who was on vacation? If the coyotes (do they even travel in packs?) were already on the run with dogs chasing them, how did one get a hold of Kaiya? And how did the tracking dogs not find her corpse? It just sounds strange to me. Tragic, however it happened - and no matter the story, the dog walker/company is liable for losing a dog. No matter what actually happened, the dog walking company still lost a client’s dog! I don’t know how they can even contest that or try to argue about it - at the very least, the dog walker admits to losing the dog.
They’ve admitted the story is true now that they have been confronted with a witness account. I’m not sure why the dogs didn’t find anything left of her…perhaps there really wasn’t anything left?
I think accidents happen, and if they had been up front about what actually happened it wouldn’t be such a big deal. It’s the lie that’s the issue.
Hell yeah coyotes pack! In the cities they, along with foxes, will pretty much clean up any stray domestic cats & dogs. And it’s entirely possible they left nothing of the dog except maybe a handful of fluff. I’d call them cautious critters when they’re solitary, but they’re still wild carnivores and more than a match for a lot of domestic breeds like small terriers. Even 3 or 4 would have made short work of the little guy.
Holy cow, did you listen to the dialog in that video? All-but-unintelligible except for the cursing. You might want to mark it “not safe for nonlosers.”
EmAnJ, that’s pretty bad. If my business depended on people trusting me with the lives of their family members, I’d be abjectly apologetic if I did something like this. What if the aggrieved pet owner goes public? Reputation is all a business like this has. They should be sucking up to her big time.
And once again, a tragic story starts out with the words “off leash.” Most of the bad stories I read about dogs being hurt or hurting someone start with either “off leash” or “chained up/tethered.” You have to be with your dogs, people.
Don’t get me wrong: I absolutely think they should have told the truth BUT I can at least understand why they maybe withheld that your friend’s dog was viciously ripped up limb by limb by wild creatures. Especially since your friend appears to be a bit crazy about their dog (dog trackers? Really? I love my dogs more than anything, but I’m not hiring Dog the Bounty Hunter to find them if they run off).
If she sues, all she can realistically expect to receive is the replacement cost of the dog. I think she should bring this up at every opportunity on craigslist message boards and everywhere dogs are spoken about in Calgary.
I know the dog tracker thing is a little overboard, but regardless of how hard it would be to give someone news like this, giving them false hope is even worse, imo.
EmAnJ, would you mind posting the business name of the dog walker - I’m in Calgary and have a dog walker (who I’m sure isn’t the one in question, as he doesn’t go to Nose Hill). I’d obviously like to avoid that outfit if I switch in the future. PM me if you like.
I have no direct knowledge of Canadian law, but in several US states there might be other theories of recovery that could allow more than this measure of damages. So, original poster’s MMV.
I can vouch for the coyote story - it’s fairly common knowledge that the coyotes here (which I have personally seen just strolling down a multi-use path) will eat your small dogs and cats. I live close to Nose Hill Park, too - I have no problem believing this story. I don’t really know why they would lie, either - we all know that there are coyotes nearby.