Who is responsible for the death of a cat after a bath at a pet store?
Newsletters In recent years, more and more people are taking their pets to pet stores for services such as grooming, bathing, and boarding. However, if a pet dies while receiving services at a pet store, how is liability determined and how is property damage defined? Recently, the People’s Court of Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province, heard such a case.
On the afternoon of March 11, Ms. Gao took her 2-year-old American short-haired cat to a pet store to take a bath, charging 120 yuan per session. According to the surveillance video, at about 4:30 p.m., when Mr. Yang, the owner of the pet store, was blowing on the cat, the cat continued to resist, struggle and other violent confrontations, until it went into shock. Afterwards, Mr. Yang sent the cat to a veterinary hospital in Yushan Town, Kunshan City, where it died of shock that afternoon after unsuccessful rescue attempts. After the incident, Ms. Gao filed a lawsuit with the Kunshan Court, demanding that the defendant Mr. Yang pay more than 40,000 RMB.
In court, Ms. Gao claimed that the cat died because it was tied with a rope around its neck when it was taking a bath, and the pet store owner grabbed the cat’s tail, which caused the cat to struggle and was strangled by the rope. Mr. Yang believes that the cat’s death is related to the de-sexing surgery, which will affect the cat’s health, and as a grooming institution rather than a veterinary store, he helped the cat to take a bath as soon as he saw that the wound was intact. Mr. Yang also showed a description of the beauty process, photos of the employees being bitten by the cat and photos of the active rope to prove that the cat was not in good condition before the bath and was unstable, biting the staff, and that the rope was active and would not cause suffocation.
The court held that, according to the video surveillance, the pet cat resisted and struggled until it went into shock and died when the defendant Mr. Yang was blowing on it. Although there was no evidence to prove the specific cause of death of the cat, but when the defendant found that the cat was abnormal during the service, he should normally take necessary measures to calm the cat, suspend the blowing, or consult with the pet owner before deciding whether to continue, but the defendant failed to take proper measures and failed to fulfill his duty of care. Accordingly, the court held that the defendant there is improper service, shall bear the responsibility to compensate for the loss of breach of contract.
According to Ms. Gao, she purchased the kitten at a market price of about 2,500 RMB, which actually cost 1,800 RMB after the discount. Ms. Gao also showed the expenses of cat food, bathing, de-sexing, tools, training and other items and items since the cat, in order to claim the property damage of the death of the pet cat 35944 yuan. Mr. Yang did not agree with this, he believed that the purchase cost of the same breed of pet cat is 800 yuan, the market value of the cat at the time of the incident was 1500 yuan, the general cost of raising the cat is 350 yuan/month, calculating a total of 6300 yuan for 18 months. Since there was a big difference between the two parties on the value of the pet cat, the Kunshan Court commissioned a veterinary association to evaluate the value of the cat and issued an evaluation conclusion.
The court, after examining the relevant evaluation opinions, combined with a visit to the Kunshan market during the trial to learn about the market value of the same breed of cat, and the actual breeding situation of the cat, determined at its discretion that the property value of the cat was 6,000 yuan. In summary, the court found that the defendant, a certain treasure pet store, compensated Ms. Gao for the property damage of 6,000 yuan and more than 3,000 yuan in evaluation fees.
(Dou Chun Ran Wang Dani)