michigan pets
Cat Grooming Incident
<p>I recently took my cat to a groomer that advertises as being ‘cat only’ and even had a large sign on the front door that said ‘No Dogs’. When my girlfriend dropped my cat off she said there were two medium to large sized dogs that were barking very loudly and freely roaming the small building.</p>
<p>She did not feel very comfortable leaving the cat at the groomer but since we'd paid up front so ultimately decided to follow through. When I arrived to pick him up I had a similar experience, the dogs were running around freely and barking constantly.</p>
<p>The dogs belonged to the owner. They were making so much noise and acting so wild that she decided to let them out. She let them outside with no leash and within a minute they attacked a smaller dog that was being walked on the sidewalk. Her dog picked the smaller dog up, shook it, and threw it.</p>
<p>When she came back in, we confronted her about the situation. We came here so that our cat could be groomed in a less stressful environment and there were two untrained dogs wildly running around and barking. Dogs that clearly demonstrated on another dog what they would do to my cat if they had the chance. When confronted she got a little heated and said next time she would charge us double and that we were lucky she didn’t cut up our cat.</p>
<p>This was not the experience that I paid for, in addition this was not a controlled and safe environment for my pet. Is there a requirement to protect my pet in this situation? Is a cat grooming business that puts animals at risk even allowed to operate?</p>

<p>While there is no entry in the <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/statelicensesearch/" rel="noreferrer">Michigan state licensing list</a> for &quot;cat groomers&quot;, there is one for &quot;<a href="https://www.michigan.gov/statelicensesearch/0,4671,7-180-24786-81056--,00.html" rel="noreferrer">dog groomers</a>&quot; which is probably indicative of licensing for &quot;cat groomers&quot; at the same time - basically, there is no state licensed required.  So theres no prospect of having one revoked.</p>
<p>So, what can you do?  Leave a bad review on Yelp, report them to the Better Business Bureau and never frequent the business again.</p>
<p>Or, if you so wish, you can invest time and effort into a lawsuit in an attempt to prove negligence, animal cruelty, animal endangerment or something else on the part of the groomers - but don't expect that to either be cheap or something you might definitely win.</p>

<p>You personally have no recourse, but perhaps we can make this a bit more abstract and ask about legal recourse for anyone bringing their animal to a groomer. In general, if you take your animal to a groomer, they have a duty of care to you (the customer) with respect to your property, and if you are harmed (which would be the case if they damaged your animal), you can sue for compensation. If the animal had been killed their animal, that would be clear-cut. If it had been substantially injured, likewise. Possibly also if it had incurred a small puncture wound. There is also a class of dog liabilities where a human is injured because they are afraid of a dog, where a person had a reasonable fear of being attacked by a dog and hurt themselves trying to avoid the attack, but these would not be a good basis for a damage lawsuit in the case of a dog scaring a cat.</p>
