Legal Question in Legal Ethics in New York

Hello,

We purchased a puppy from a store on Tuesday 1/10/12 and we noticed that same night that he was throwing up and had diarrhea. We called the owner the next day and he stated that it was normal, the puppy was just nervous. We thought he would get better but gradually the dog got more sick. By Saturday night the 14th we decided to take him to a 24 hour vet nearby. The vet realized that the dog had low blood sugar and needed to be hooked up to an IV. It was concluded later that the dog had a virus called parvo. The vet also noticed that by the history of shots that the dog received prior to us purchasing the dog that he received shots that were meant to help treat parvo and that it looks like the dog had a previous history with parvo prior to us purchasing. The vet wrote us a letter to take to the pet store owner stating that the dog was unfit to be sold because of it's illness.

We took the dog back to the owner and received a full refund for the purchase but now we are stuck with a $1500 vet bill that the pet store owner will not reimburse. Now according to "The Sale of Dogs and Cats Notice" under article 35-D I noticed that it says in reference to purchasing a dog that was later realized to be unfit "The right to return the animal and receive a refund of the purchase price including sales tax AND reasonable veterinary costs directly related to the veterinarian's certification that the animal is unfit for purchase".

Now we realize that it says reasonable so we weren't expecting a full reimbursement and we we're willing to negotiate a price but the pet store owner refused completely arguing that we went to a vet specialist and that it doesn't count. I do not see anything stating that if we see vet specialist then we can't negotiate a price.

Do we have a legit small claims case here that is worth pursuing or is this lost cause? Thank you for your time.

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