Customer Suing Over Cat Bite Claims Denver Cat Cafe Knew Animal Was Dangerous

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(9News)

Cat cafes are all the rage these days, filled as they are with cats. But although the owner of a Denver cat cafe says customers should reasonably expect that a cat may bite or scratch, the daughter of a woman who was bitten during a visit has filed a lawsuit on her mother’s behalf, saying the owner knew the animal was known to be dangerous, and shouldn’t have let it come into contact with people.

The lawsuit is seeking $5,920 for $305 in medical bills plus missed work and emotional damages related to the ordeal, reports 9News, after the bite became infected.

The mother and daughter duo visited the cat cafe in February, and claim that a cat bit the older woman.

“[He] flipped onto his back when my mom still had her hand out,” her daughter 9NEWS. “When she was going down to continue petting him, he bit her on her hand rather aggressively and wouldn’t let go for at least 15-20 seconds.”

“When she finally got her hand away it was bleeding in about 7 or 8 different spots,” she said.

Though she says her mother was treated at the counter, she realized when she got home it was infected, and had it treated at an urgent care clinic at a cost of $305. She asked the cafe to pay the medical bill, but the owner declined.

“We wouldn’t be able to survive as a business model if we were opening ourselves up to taking responsibility for a cat’s behavior, because we can’t guarantee that a cat won’t bite or scratch,” the owner told 9News, saying she did offer to pay for part of the bill that people get adequate warning about how unpredictable cats are with signs warning people to “pet at their own risk.”

The daughter says on the day of the bite, the owner asked by name if it was that particular cat who’d done it. She claims that the owner knew he was dangerous and should’ve been removed from the cafe. But the owner says he was a popular feline.

“He was here for a long time and was very popular with our customers and managed to interact with a lot of people,” she said.

Various settlements and agreements on who should be responsible for the bill failed, leading to the daughter filing the lawsuit on her mother’s behalf in early April.

“I guess a lot of people think this is frivolous, and to us, to be honest, it is too,” the daughter admits. “She should have just paid the $300.”

But the owner says she didn’t want her insurance rates to go up, and that paying the bill would’ve created a precedent for others to sue over something she says she warns customers could happen.

Denver’s cat cafe faces lawsuit over cat bite [9News Now]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist