Sue the kennel?

This question is about dog and cat boarding kennels, and I wonder what my rights are.

I dropped off my dogs at 9:30 am at a private home based dog kennel on a Saturday, and was planning to pick up my dogs Monday night.

The hours of operation are from 8am to 6pm but because we were travelling far, when she asked me if I was going to pick them up at 6pm, I told her that we might be running late. She said no problem, and in one of her brochures it says, open from 6pm to 8pm for the convenience and need of our customers, so I didn\'t ask any further questions.

We were running late and arrived at her place at 6:20pm to pick up our dogs and she wasn\'t home. We live 5 minutes away so we went home, unpacked and went back at 7:30pm, still not home. We went back home and tried again at 8:30pm but she wasn\'t home.

We started to get worried, because she knew we were coming and we could hear our dogs barking because they probably heard us and were excited to go home.

At 9:15 my husband just went down to check and he noticed lights and the TV on, so he knocked but no one answered. He came home and I asked him to go back because maybe she didn\'t hear him knock. He went back with our son and two foster sons and knocked again, but the curtains were now closed.

He thought that was weird and knocked one last time and she opened the door. She refused to give us our dogs even though we explained the situation, and she didn\'t care.

We told her that we couldn\'t afford the extra day and that my daughter wanted her dog back and that I had to be somewhere early the next day because our foster sons just had a court hearing and they were going home that day. She still refused to let us have our dogs, even though we were going to give her an extra $20 for the inconvenience.

My husband said that if he didn\'t know any better, she wanted the extra days pay, and she blew up at him and started to scream. She called me after they left and started to scream at me. I tried to apologize and explain that we were only 20 minutes late and I told her that I read that 6pm to 8pm was written down for the needs of the customers. She said that it was now 10pm and too late. We were there between 6pm and 8pm and left numerous messages on the answering machine and she never called us back and wasn\'t home between those times, but she didn\'t care

I went the next day with my mother -- I had the exact amount on me for the three days and $20 for the inconvenience. She handed me a bill for an extra $40 for the extra day. I told her that I didn\'t bring that amount so she refused to let me take my dogs home. I was devastated because they were staring out at me through the cage and my daughter was waiting in the car for them.

I didn\'t know what to do, so I turned to my mother and she didn\'t have any money on her to help me out. I told her that my husband was at work until after 6pm and he had our bank card on him. I couldn\'t pay her until the next day even if I was going to give her the full amount. She didn\'t care and would have charged me another $40 for another day. They closed the door so the dogs couldn\'t see me, and I almost wanted to cry.

I told her that I was going to talk to a lawyer on line to see what my rights were and she lunged at me, thinking that I was threatening her with getting a layer and that\'s not what I said. She screamed at me and threatened me and I was really afraid she was going to hit me so I backed away.

My mother pleaded with her because she dealt alot with her in the past and was planning to board her own cats and dogs there the weekend after. She was going to say no, but my mother swore she would pay them the week after if she let me have my dogs. So she let me have them on my mothers word.


My mother came to the car shocked at what she witnessed, and than we left. My mother who lives on her old age pension cheques offered to pay the extra $40 for me, but I knew that I would not take her money.

This camping trip that we went on was a good bye vacation for the two foster boys we had for a year. Most of the trip money ran out and we put some of the money on visa and we didn\'t want to do that. So the shock of more money going out for 20 minutes seemed a waste, but it wasn\'t the money as much as the feeling that someone had the right to withhold our family members from our kids.

I just wanted to know what rights owners have, and are our pets just considered pieces of furniture with no feelings. If I was running late to a daycare to pick up my child, would the day care worker have the right to withhold my child until I pay? It makes no sense to me that she can do that to people and feels she has the right to be so cruel.

What are my rights and and since she was supposed to get $126 and I was forced to pay $168 do I have a right to get some of that money back?

Also, do I have the right to warn others by word of mouth or a write up in the paper? Do I have the right to phone the better business bureau to complain?


Thank you for any information you can give me, that will help me when I leave my dogs at a different kennel in the future, which I\'m not sure that I will ever do.

Thank you very much for your time

Based on what you say here, you certainly could file suit against them (or at least threaten to do so) in small claims court or in regular court; filing in small claims court is easier and requires no attorney...you could try to collect all of the costs and damages that you suffered due to their behavior...

And yes you can complain to the BBB as well as tell others of your dissatisfaction. That is perfectly within bounds.