Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Hi! Ok so the story goes:
6 years ago I was living in Baltimore and I bought a dog for a friend of mine in California. I sent the dog to California and never really got a thank you. I moved to California a few months ago and went over to see the dog. To my surprise I found the dog in another roommates bedroom. Didn't think much of it. Since then i've been dating the roommate. The dog sleeps with us, we feed him and bathe him and give him flea and tick treatments, take him for walks and Danny(the guy I bought him for) is nowhere to be found. Danny goes away for months at a time and leaves the dog with my boyfriend without even asking. Acting like it's my boyfriends dog. A few months ago Danny had another puppy he ended up giving away because he couldn't take care of the puppy. He has two cats and for the last two months he has locked the cats in his bedroom. He had someone feed the cats but who knows how often they were fed. They were constantly screaming from the room. We discovered a lump on roscoes neck(the dog in question) I let Danny know and he did nothing about it so Jeff and I took him to get checked out. We discovered we were gonna have to get surgery so before we did, we called Danny and asked him if we get the dogs surgery, we wanna keep him. He said no(even tho it's basically our dog at this point) and waited weeks because he was looking for the cheapest rate for surgery rather than the dogs well being. His girlfriend yells at the dog if he comes too close to her and now they're talking about moving. My concern is that dog WILL be locked in a crate all day an get no attention. For the dogs well being I want him to stay with us. I'm hoping the fact that I bought him that i might have a say in it. I also characther witnesses that will definetely speak up on our behalf. My boyfriend has had the dog for several years in this condition, and in the past 5 months I've barely seen Danny even touch the dog. Danny is a spotlight hog and would love nothing more than to keep the dog so people will just pay attention to him. Please tell me what I should do. Both my bf and I would be totally heartbroken if we lost the dog as well as he would be treated badly ... Thank you
1 Answer from Attorneys
We get these dog-has-wrong-owner questions about once a year. Although they are heart-wrenching, I have not yet discovered any law that allows transfer of ownership of a dog from a neglectful or abusive legal owner to someone with a claim based on the dog's preference or the wannabe owner's superior care.
Lawyers are not allowed to recommend violation of the law, such as laws regarding rights of property owners, so I'm not going to suggest you grab Rollo and take him with you when you move. That would be illegal.
However, Rollo isn't going to sue you.
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