Michael Bennett settles with Tampa kennel

Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett has paid nearly $15,000 to a Tampa, Fla., dog kennel where he allegedly abandoned his 4-month-old dog when he and his wife moved to Seattle.

When Bennett, a former member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, signed with the Seahawks last offseason and moved to Seattle, he left his boxer puppy, Koa, at Tampa’s Lucky Dog Daycare in March 2013 and never returned, the kennel’s attorney told seattlepi.com.

After repeated unsuccessful attempts to reach Bennett and his wife, Pele, Lucky Dog filed a lawsuit in December to recoup more than $5,000 that the Bennetts allegedly owed the doggy daycare.

Meanwhile, Koa remained at the kennel, all but abandoned after the Bennetts moved to the opposite corner of the country. The puppy required at least two walks a day, and had to be separated from other dogs because it had not been fixed, attorney Mark Aubin said.

“It wasn’t good,” Aubin told seattlepi.com. “That just isn’t how you conduct business and that’s not how you treat an animal.”

Finally, after Koa had been there for 10 months, Lucky Dog worked with a Florida boxer rescue organization and found the dog new owners. The pup has a new name, Quigley, and seems to have recovered from a long year without any primary caretakers.

“(Quigley is) now with a nice new family, gained all his weight back and is doing great,” said Aubin, who took the case pro-bono.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/football/2014 ... his-puppy/

Edit: Kitsapback2backKitsap

Just an observation, why would the dog need to put weight back on after being looked after in the kennels?

The lawsuit said the puppy “languished” over several months and was so distraught that it developed poor eating habits, lost fur and was “clearly failing to thrive.” The puppy was not neutered and could not mix with “social groups” at the kennel and was bored, the owners claimed.

http://tbo.com/news/crime/tampa-kennel- ... -20140113/

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Apparently, Lucky Dog Daycare and Resort of South Tampa=dog torture kennel.

abandon your dog? that is bullshit

Why the doggy daycare neglect him tho?

We got dogs, cats, guinea pigs, chickens, fish, lizards all living happily in our menagerie. We're animal people. Yeah, MB should have dealt with the dog sooner.... but that story is a steaming load of lawyer crap.

Bennett could have funded a dog fighting ring and some people here would still defend him.

Davehawk":1lfmspa6 said:

Bennett could have funded a dog fighting ring and some people here would still defend him.

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I've heard one side of the story here, not enough to warrant defending anyone.

Love how we always speculate in situations similar to this that someone might be trying to take a pro athlete for some cash, but as soon as an animal gets involved the tears start to flow uncontrollably.

Also if you were going to 'abandon' your dog, I'm not sure 'abandoning' it at some place that specializes in caring for dogs is the most horrifying thing to do and I'm assuming there's more to the story here. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that perhaps there was some miscommunication involved. I kind of doubt that Bennett would mastermind some horrifying puppy abandonment scheme to save himself a little bit of cash.

If you want to call that 'defending' him, that's fine. I see it as "there is usually a reasonable explanation".

Davehawk":1b93dj4t said:

Bennett could have funded a dog fighting ring and some people here would still defend him.

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Riiggghhhhttt

I hope there is a reasonable explanation. If not, I will lose a lot of respect for Bennett.

sc85sis":3lym9mk1 said:

I hope there is a reasonable explanation. If not, I will lose a lot of respect for Bennett.

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I doubt there was a reasonable explanation, other than being busy with football. I mean what other excuse could there be when he had the financial resources to pay someone to get the dog and bring it to an animal shelter if he didn't want it? It's easier to bury your head in the sand and be intentionally ignorant when extremely busy, which doesn't excuse unreasonable or careless behavior toward the kennel and his pet. And I doubt he was the first person to leave an animal at the kennel for an extended period of time without a prearrangement. The kennel seems to have used this as an opportunity to excoriate the behavior while collecting a few thousand more dollars in settlement. Unfortunately for them, it may backfire if people perceive what happened to Bennett's pet as unreasonable for a facility that specializes in caring for dogs. The dog losing hair sounds suspicious, as does its exclusion from the other dogs due to having not been neutered. They could have mitigated their damages by turning the dog over to shelter earlier or having the dog neutered themselves, as the common law says no damages result from the intentional neutering of a pet without the owner's consent.

$50 put your dog to sleep and nobody cares

$15,000 to house your dog in a kennel because you changed your mind and decided not to keep him is an unforgivable sin

people are crazy sometimes

I agree with Kitsaphawk,mostly because we already beat this subject to death.
I'm a dog lover, I love dogs so much that I don't/ won't have one in my current situation. I live in a relatively small condo.
This makes me wonder what everybody thinks about the HUMAN pups that are abandoned almost daily at fire stations around the country, or even in dumpsters.
No doubt MB could have done better in this scenario, but we don't know the whole story. At least he didn't drive down a dark road and dump the pup out. I remember checking the place out, when the story broke a while back. Based on what I found this was a darn nice place, well at least in comparison to others.
In the grand scheme of things, this all worked out ok. The dog is in good hands with a good home now. The dog was never hurt or in any danger. The kennel was compensated very well.
The abused and abandoned pet issue is huge in our country.
If this story truly moves you, I challenge you to go out and do something positive to help. ie donate time or money to a shelter or rescue, adopt a pet. Every little bit helps.
A cheap and easy thing I do is, at least once a month, I buy a 50 lb bag of food and drop it off at the local shelter.

Davehawk":3rr8odnz said:

Bennett could have funded a dog fighting ring and some people here would still defend him.

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Truth. When it comes to bad behavior by Seahawk players (or the players on any other team), you see a lot of hardcore fans of that team turn into delusional apologists. You just have to expect that kind of behavior and do your best to ignore it.

UK_Seahawk":12s26bui said:

Just an observation, why would the dog need to put weight back on after being looked after in the kennels?

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My guess would be that perhaps the kennel was a high stress environment for the dog and it wasn't eating as much as it would if it lived in a home where it was comfortable. I certainly doubt a high end kennel like this one was starving the dog.

Missing_Clink":oorfu5zf said:

Davehawk":oorfu5zf said:

Bennett could have funded a dog fighting ring and some people here would still defend him.

Click to expand...

Truth. When it comes to bad behavior by Seahawk players (or the players on any other team), you see a lot of hardcore fans of that team turn into delusional apologists. You just have to expect that kind of behavior and do your best to ignore it.

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And who exactly is being a "delusional apologist"?

Okay as a Boxer lover and proud pappa of a Boxer "Bella" who is a dear family member of ours in the Breda Household for 11 years, I have to say I like Bennett a bit less after hearing this. I will still cheer him on and support him as a Seattle Seahawk but he won't be making my Favorite Current Seahawk Player list.

:141847_bnono:

Seems odd to me that LuckyDog claims the pooch lost fur and weight. They market themselves as a high-end pet resort with monthly packages. The dog was only four months old when it came to them, so you would think any life-long emotional or environmental attachments would be relatively minimal. On the flip side, there probably was a way for MB or his wife to resolve the issue before it got blown up in the press.

When I adopted my dog, he was about a year old or possibly a little less. He bonded to me in less than a week. My mom came to visit me; she went to take him for a quick walk, and he put the brakes on and would NOT go with her because he didn't want to leave me.

Now, of course, he LOOOOOOVES Grandma.