I need advice/legal help dealing with a breeder!!!!

@ileiap (11)
United States
May 21, 2007 9:32am CST
My husband and I bought an American Bulldog two weeks ago today. Over this last weekend, we decided that 3 dogs is really too much and wanted to find a great home for her while she's still learning and adapting. I thought we should be decent and let the people we bought her from know. So my husband talked to them last night and they ended up wanting her back, but were only going to give us half of our money. We didn't really see that we wanted to do that, and if we were willing to lose that much money, then we'd give her to a family member or something. So my husband told them he'd talk it over with me and then call them the next day. They ended up calling back a few minutes later and said they'd give us the full amount if we'd meet them that night. This was at 9:00 already, on a work night, but we agreed. When we got there, the husband was with the mother and said he talked to his lawyer and that they would be taking us to court for extortion, and for holding the puppy for ransom!!!!! Can they do this???? We've never bought from an actual breeder before, and have never heard of such things in the past. However, they say they have Breeder's rights, but this is their first litter, the puppies weren't registered and didn't have any papers, PLUS, we were never told of any of this when we purchased her, or signed any contract or anything. They said we had a verbal contract, which, all that amounts to is that we agreed to give her a good home. We absolutely did for the two weeks we had her and have been training her and such.. Were we wrong to want our money back? Can they really take us to court? I was up all night because i'm worried sick about this :( We are good people and we have and have had two dogs already, they are our children! So it wasn't a matter of not taking care of her or anything :( I really don't want to go to court and have to go through the expense, and emotional aspect of it. Does anyone out there have any idea? Any lawyers with some advice, and know the laws? Thank you so much!!!
1 response
@sumimasen (644)
• United States
29 May 07
Hmm. Well, I'm not an attorney, and you should always speak with an attorney for legal advise; I will suggest that you do the following: 1. Keep a written record of every encounter. 2. Keep every receipt of the interaction. 3. Ask for written agreements, not verbal ones. I also suggest visiting the Legal section of your local Craigslist.org. It's all a bunch of attorneys trying to "out-knowledge" each other, so you may want to post your question with them. I truly hope this helps!