Newsflash: Pets Bite. Is it Worth a Lawsuit?

May 11th, 2010. By AbiK

You be the judge.

Here’s the story. Karen Costa and her former fiance purchased a longhaired female tabby and the cat’s brother as part of a package-deal adoption from PetCo, in conjunction with KittyKind, in Manhattan. Great and that should be the end of the story.

But as the NY Daily News and a host of other media outlets report, the cat—the brother—apparently wasn’t too friendly. He hid under the bed for weeks. And when he did finally emerge, he bit Costa’s right middle finger. Pretty badly.

She was hospitalized for three nights and needed surgery.

She’s now filed a lawsuit against PetCo and KittyKind. For negligence. For mislabeling the cats. As domestic—when she claims the one at least was “feral” and should never have been available for adoption.

I feel badly for Costa. She got hurt—and it required more than a band-aid. She also thought she was providing a home to two otherwise homeless cats—cats that would become part of her family, or at least an integral part of the fabric of her daily life.

But two things struck me about this lawsuit.

First, regardless of where you buy a pet or how domesticated it is, it is still…a pet. It’s an animal. And while many animals do just fine as they coexist with humans in human homes, there still is always a chance that they may nip, bite or become aggressive. It’s kind of a buyer beware thing.

The other thing that struck me about this one is that the purchase involved KittyKind. I’m all for taking in abandoned or neglected pets. It’s a very selfless thing to do. But when you do, there’s an inherent understanding that you may not have all the info about the pet that you’d otherwise get if you were to purchase the pet from a breeder. And even then there’s no guarantee.

I speak from experience—I’ve had pets from both breeders and from, gee whiz, PetCo. In fact, I was just bitten last week by a hamster I had purchased from PetCo—enough so that it required a doctor’s visit. The little sucker got me good. But I’ve had hamsters for years. And I know they can bite. I also know cats can scratch and bite. And I know dogs can jump up and bite. I’ve filed police reports when someone else’s dog bit me. But I’ve never filed a lawsuit.

Like I said, I feel badly for Costa. She was put out of commission for a while and claims she lost an account at work—a marketing contract with a major beverage distributor. But I’m not completely convinced that the onus here falls entirely on PetCo and KittyKind. We’ll have to see where this one goes…

Tags: Cat bite, Karen Costa, KittyKind, PetCo

This was posted on Tuesday, May 11th, 2010 at 4:40 pm and is filed under Personal Injury . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.