Our appeal was successful

[joeyboy]

Originally Posted by uroplatus

all.

(just quoted a little bit so the thread isn't overly padded with quotes)

Since this has pretty much ruined your life for quite a while now and has been overturned, are you able to claim for damages from the council? I mean there's the loss of business, the loss of your personal collection(yes it's sad to put a price on owning say a snake for 15 years but the fact is when it comes to claims the cost of every animal along with emotional damage must be calculated), the loss of reputation etc? I mean your partner(if I have this the right way around and your female) said he has received abuse on the street for this? I imagine you might have gotten hate mail.

Surely the council owes you a hell of a lot more then a "...yeah sorry about that.". I mean hell a women who hurt her fingers typing when she was a typist got millions(which is ridiculous IMO), a fat slob who burns their blubber hand on a coffee in McDonalds gets a huge lump sum, you deserve at the very least loss of profits from your business, cost of all animals taken away and then some kind of compensation for any legal fees you've had, time wasted and emotional damage.

[uroplatus]

Originally Posted by joeyboy

Since this has pretty much ruined your life for quite a while now and has been overturned, are you able to claim for damages from the council? I mean there's the loss of business, the loss of your personal collection(yes it's sad to put a price on owning say a snake for 15 years but the fact is when it comes to claims the cost of every animal along with emotional damage must be calculated), the loss of reputation etc? I mean your partner(if I have this the right way around and your female) said he has received abuse on the street for this? I imagine you might have gotten hate mail.

Surely the council owes you a hell of a lot more then a "...yeah sorry about that.". I mean hell a women who hurt her fingers typing when she was a typist got millions(which is ridiculous IMO), a fat slob who burns their blubber hand on a coffee in McDonalds gets a huge lump sum, you deserve at the very least loss of profits from your business, cost of all animals taken away and then some kind of compensation for any legal fees you've had, time wasted and emotional damage.

We will be taking the council for compensation for loss of earnings, loss of about £30,000 worth of animals and also other things as well which I cant really go into until I have spoken to my solicitor. It is very difficult for us to put a price on pets - the shop stock is much easier as we were not attached to those animals but our personal pets are much harder.
You did get it right I am female and yes my partner is male - he has received abusive comments and threats. I actually didnt leave the house for a long while after the conviction as I was afraid for my safety. Luckly we didnt receive hate mail but I did here of other pet stores in the area receiving cutting from the papers from someone trying to get us banned from them.
Thanks for your post I will keep everyone updated on our progress of sueing the council.

[dingy]

I didn't get involved in the original thread as I did not know the true circumstances and had no desire to 'jump on the bandwagon'. I will say it's very disappointing that there are very few apologies and even more that there are some still thinking 'no smoke without fire'. Those people have obviously been lucky enough not to have had a problem, if they had they would know that truth plays a very small part in things.

I would like to congratulate you all on a deserved outcome and I hope you can finally put this behind you and pick up your lives. Many many congratulations.

[uroplatus]

Thanks very much for your post Dingy its much appreciated. People dont like to admit when they got something wrong so to be honest I asked for apologies but didnt expect any. I am just happy to be able to get on with my life now and hopefully get back to some normality now.

[krazykayaker]

Hello
I read the posts when they came up but not knowing enough either way never commented - I did however mention it to Michael and he thought it was complete rubbish and never believed you were guilty.

I hope that brings you some comfort - he always had faith in and its a shame I cannot let him know the outcome but I will tell Jean x

[uroplatus]

Thanks Rachael. I wish Michael would have been around to hear the news too. I know he believed in us all the way through it and its such a shame he never found out the outcome. If you could let Jean know I'm sure she would be pleased for us also.

[Salazare Slytherin]

Originally Posted by sparkle

You must be very happy your names were cleared on the charges that they were cleared on. I hadnt noticed this post before today. I will say the same as I did in the other thread.

I did not see the shop.. therefore cannot make a true judgement. I heard accounts of the shop being dreadful and accounts of it being fine.. and also ones of it being somewhere inbetween. This was from people who had visited the actual shop in question and had seen it over the time it was open. |With such varied accounts making a decision is almost impossible. The law makes mistakes.. it allows guilty people to walk free.. either in the first instance or on appeals however it also convicts others guilty when they are innocent. I never heard the trial, I never saw the shop or house or how the animals were kept. Everyones standards of animal keeping are different. I know what mine are. So it is hard for me to say that the shop is one in which I would have felt comfortable or uncomfortable. What some people think is acceptable others think is dreadful. This is of course a possible reason why there was many mixed reactions. However not being able to SEE the shop myself, I wont ever be able to fully decide if personally it was a shop of adequate care , cleanliness and husbandry.

However the difference between standards does not mean something is illegal or against the law. Actually breaking the law takes a HELL of a lot of mis-care and extreme poor husbandry in reptile keeping. However there are many shops operating within the law I would not frequent. Also there are many excelent reptile shops and we all have our differences so I guess it comes down to personal standard as I said earlier.

Well done on the appeal. If you do open another shop I imagine it will be this time of a very high standard..since people will possibly know the background of what has went before. This degree of pressure may be unfair however it can only make you excellent keepers in the future which is good for you AND the animals ( oh and of course the buyers in said shoppy).

A win/ win situation.

( on a side note will your names now be added back onto the rhac shack website .. since they were removed after your conviction..??)

Anyone who works in a pet shop in any way shape and form will tell you, although animals are spot cleaned every day with fresh food water e.t.c it is impossible to tell with over 100 animals if one poos later on after the spot check, people will then say oooooo this pet shop must be bad! because this animal has not been cleaned out on site.... regardless of what people say a pet shop job is hard and it is hard to accomodate for lots of animals on a daily basis we can only strive to do our best.

and exacly many pet shops are different in the way they run things I am glad you bought this up... it is like many neighbours around you you dont all live the same way the same life style, pet shops are just the same, sometimes animals do die in petshops but i wouldnt put this down to them being neglected, snakes are usually quite hardy along with birds they are stronger than what you may think.

to the owners of the bussiness though you have my greatest sympathy, and great respect to still battle on after all this has happned.

Kindest regards dixon

[kyledawelsh]

i'd never read the previous thread but glad to hear you got cleared most shops have dead in the freezer and alot of homes too

again well done

[uroplatus]

Thanks guys for confirming what I explained initially about freezers and deads - it is common practice and in every shop I have worked or been in it is common practice to prove to suppliers when something had died bodies need to be kept. Thanks for the congratulations too

[krazykayaker]

No worries I am popping over to see Jean tomorrow hopefully. I was speaking with the vet who was there for the case the other week as they have my poorly leos and she cannot believe how the case even came to court in the first place! She mentioned a few other things too (that obviously she can now the case is order) and its unbelieble there was a case against you to start with...clearly the council know nothing about reptile keeping! the idiots!

I'd sue them for everything they have!