Question
I had my ESA pet being watched by a friend of a friend the last couple of months since where I had moved to, the other people in the home were allergic to cats. I had situated myself to have him back, but the person watching him became unreachable. I even went to the home to find that the girl moved. When I texted, they said wrong number. Now this person is completely MIA other than on social media. I contacted her on Facebook and then was blocked! Since he is a registered emotional support animal does that give me any more rights? What can I do to get him back? We had a agreement that there wasn’t pay required to watch as this was supposedly a friend, but we even messaged her on social media to pay her for the troubles of watching him before we were blocked.
Answer
People who believe their animal is being wrongfully withheld can sue (replevin action) to try to get the animal returned. The police can also be contacted although the police generally will not get involved in pet custody disputes unless they believe an animal was stolen. When there is no written agreement, often the disputing parties have different versions of their verbal agreement (for example, one person may say the animal was being temporarily boarded while the other person may say the animal was gifted to him/her). Therefore, it is very difficult to predict how a given court will decide a pet custody case. Depending on the facts of each case, a court, in reaching its decision, may be inclined to strongly consider that an animal is an emotional support animal. However, I also believe a court would be much less inclined to consider the animal’s ESA “registration” when the person who says that he/she has a disability related need for an emotional support animal left the animal in someone’s else’s care for months. I hope this all works out for the dog.
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