Animal Shelter Compelled to Release Contact Information of Adopter

Plaintiff sued seeking to force a shelter to provide her with the contact information of the people that adopted her cat. Plaintiff returned from a trip to find her cat missing. She was told that the cat had been taken to a shelter. Plaintiff contacted the shelter, less than a week after she discovered the cat missing, only to learn that the shelter had made no effort to locate the plaintiff, in violation of the shelter’s obligations and had given the cat away. The shelter refused to provide the adopter’s contact information to the plaintiff. The court decided that although the plaintiff may have lost her rights to the cat, due to the delay in claiming it, she was entitled to the adopter’s information. The court also found that the shelter did not establish that it had adhered to rules providing for a mandatory waiting period. (5/05)