Ashley Furniture Delivery person ignored my instructions causing serious injury to my cat Roseville CA

On 11/23/21, I had a sectional delivered from the Ashley Furniture store located at 10349 Fairway Dr Roseville, CA 95678. I requested multiple times that the pieces just be set side by side and not connected as the recliners don't work smoothly when the pieces are connected. They connected them anyway, so I asked them to unconnect them and reiterated that the recliners don't work properly when connected.

Instead of just doing what I asked, one of the men started reclining one of the recliners - I don't know if he didn't believe me or wanted to prove me wrong or what. When the chair started moving, I heard my cat meow from beneath the chair. I told the delivery man to stop because my cat was under the chair. Instead of stopping, he reversed the action and started putting the recliner down causing my cat to start yowling loudly. I yelled at him to stop because he was hurting my cat, and I raised the recliner to find my cat with his tail caught in the reclining mechanism. The cat was wildly trying to get away, and I was trying to release his tail, and both delivery men stood by laughing uproarously.

My cat pulled free, amputating about 2 inches of his tail. At that point, the delivery guy went back to trying to recline the chair. Of course, it didn't work at all at that point because there was a big chunk of my cat's tail stuck in it. So the delivery guy just shrugged, told me to call the store, and then left.

My cat had to have surgery to repair the damage because his nerves were exposed. I have over $1000 in vet bills so far. I called Ashley to report the incident and the customer care representative who called me back told me that this is the second time this has happened in the last 6 months and that Ashley is not liable because they contract out for delivery, but refused to tell me what delivery company it was. He also refused to provide information for or to connect me with anyone else in the company who might be able to provide recourse or resolution.