A Nashville doggie day care has filed a lawsuit for $2 million against people who they said have destroyed their reputation. They said online posts in a popular neighborhood Facebook page just weren't true.
The Dog Spot in East Nashville filed the lawsuit for libel, fraud and other charges against Jamie Bayer and Bari Rachel Miley Hardin for comments they made on the East Nashville Facebook page starting last month.
According to the lawsuit, Bayer posted in part: "...how many dogs have died at The Dog Spot?" Adding, "I found out two dogs died there. Since then I've heard up to four, and recently even seven."
The lawsuit says, among other things, Hardin posted "Lots of dogs have been killed there" and "people can't talk when they've been paid off."
The lawsuit from The Dog spot says "These are false statements."
"It's not acceptable, its not freedom of speech. you cannot yell fire in a movie theater," said Chad Baker, one of the owners of The Dog Spot. "Just because it's Facebook, doesn't mean you can go on, and say things that are not true, and what's being said about us is not true."
There has been at least one dog death at the day care. Rachael Waldrop's Chihuahua "Hall" died after an incident with a larger dog last year. Waldrop sued the daycare last month.
Hardin's attorney told Scripps station WTVF in Nashville in a statement, "This lawsuit is just another transparent attempt to silence The Dog Spot's many deeply unhappy customers..." and "The Dog Spot is about to learn a very expensive lesson about free speech, and we look forward to seeing them in court for a short period of time and exposing this ridiculous lawsuit for the sham that it is."
This is not the first libel lawsuit The Dog Spot has filed. Last year, they sued after someone posted what they said was a false review on Yelp.
