Comments on: Chicago Woman Sues Over Pet Food Recall

Cat Owner Seeks Class Action Lawsuit Claiming Company Delayed Recall

[olebd]

dear: Posted by olebd at 08:18 AM : Mar 21, 2007?so milk comes from a cow1 what does giving your money to Iraq have to do with a cat?
Posted by hollyt2 at 08:40 AM : Mar 21, 2007

I'll slow it down for you...

F-o-o-d s-a-f-e-t-y and the monitoring of such will suffer due to lack of funds and whatever funds are left being re-directed to other countries such as Iraq thus making more cats, dogs and people sick or dead. Better take up gardening.

[bennerdjr]

The comments about no vet visits in nine years are off target. The article states only that the cat was nine years old. It doesn't say how long that owner had the cat. I would imagine a "good" lawyer would check such things before offering to take case. After all in a class action suit the lawyer would make more than any of the people suing.

[ekucrew]

Some reports from media state there are 16 dead cats so far. This is bunk! Who knows how many have died since last fall when the cat food was packaged and sold. The odds are many pet deaths from this mess will unfortunately go under the radar.

Are the hacks that produced the food going to compensate owners who had pets that died?

[kinmalie]

I checked my ferret's KAYTEE food and the product is manufactured in Kansas. Are all foods being checked for all pets? My ferret is still recovering from a sudden onset of weakness/couldn't walk and dehydration a couple weeks ago. I noticed that when she was not given the ferret food and given a cat food that is not on the recall list she has improved. Is there a link? I wonder.

[jetlizhan]

good for her for the lawsuit. . .but no vet visit in 9 yrs? did her cat not get the yearly feline shots? she needs to explain this because that is being very negligent on her part. i had a healthly cat for 15 years but he ALWAYS got his yearly shots.

[cwalkowicz]

For those of you that find this amusing just image it the next time they say "only a few people died of e coli". My cat ate one package of the Iams Selects Bites and became so ill that he has had IV fluids for four days now. That is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of his treatments. I have $1544. to date in Vet bills and have yet to determine if he has permanent damage. Unfortunately for all you doubters, I bought the stuff on the internet, have the purchase and delivery receipts and dates as well as the package numbers with the exact serial numbers on them. My cat is four years old, has seen a vet for his annual shots four weeks earlier and was in PERFECT health. There is no doubt in my vet's mind that the cat became ill from the contaminated/poisoned food.

Next time there is a product contamination we should all ask that it be sent to the guy who said it doesn't matter -- that way we won't have to care.

[ekucrew]

NO vet appointments in 9 years??

[hollyt2-2009]

dear: Posted by olebd at 08:18 AM : Mar 21, 2007?so milk comes from a cow1 what does giving your money to Iraq have to do with a cat?

[olebd]

We only have so much money and most of what we have left (if any) is going to Iraq and Afghanistan. More of this will happen until we take care of our own county before all the others for a change.

[jester188]

So let me get the straight... this lady has no prior vet documents to prove that her cat was healthy because she in the nine years never once took her cat to vet for anything... even boosters...

yeah, okay lady your going to win this one...

i will sopport those with real cases and not just trying to make a quick buck because the chance is there...

For those people who lost their pets I hope you get some sort of compensation for vet bills or just the loss... and as for the lady.. get your head out of your a$$... you have nothing... you didn't even take care of your pet with regular vet visits... and now you want someone to pay for your own incompetence....

[hollyt2-2009]

I understand the womans hurt but she calls the company neglect??and she says she never has taken her cat to a vet in 9 years either. that to me is neglect and serious if this cat has never had a check-up or maybe no shots. either she is neglectful or just plain to cheap to take her cat. once again it could all boil down about the money.

[dgquast]

"All that's required is to allow easier class action status and to remove various limits and inhibitions on law suits or, in most cases, just to let American tort law work its way.

Manufacturers work to insure the safety of their products far more to avoid lawsuits than to placate Federal inspectors."

Spoken like another dirtbag lawyer acauble1

[rillifane]

acauble1

I understand your concern but it doesn't take FDA inspectors to insure the safety of the animal or human food supply.

All that's required is to allow easier class action status and to remove various limits and inhibitions on law suits or, in most cases, just to let American tort law work its way.

Manufacturers work to insure the safety of their products far more to avoid lawsuits than to placate Federal inspectors.

The law has come a long way since the days when doctrines like caveat emptor denied justice to the victims of shoddy commercial practices and when legal assistance for the common man was often unavailable.

Federal inspectors didn't forestall problems even before any cuts in their budgets.

And, given the apparent source of this problem, They wouldn't have caught this either even if they had been there.

[acauble1]

The FDA is stretched incredibly thin. Massive budget cuts for their department have led to a loss of many inspectors, but that's still no excuse. we MUST demand that Congrees look into this to see if FDA funding is up to that point where the food supply of animals and humans alike are being properly inspected. This is not a story that is (or should) just going to go away like I'm sure they hope it will!
Posted by RandalDS at 02:10 AM : Mar 21, 2007


I hate to make my argument political, but to those who feel that the federal government should be cut and slashed to a 'skeleton' level all for the sake of personal tax breaks, (most of which benefit the wealthy)...

...I have to ask; when are cuts in government too much?

And if your answer is "no amount of cuts are too much"... then I have to ask:

How many of your loved ones have to die before you realize that government actually does play an important role in our lives.

There is no life, or liberty, or pursuit of happiness when our food, our water, and our air is too poisonous to consume!

[randalds]

"FDA inspectors had never before visited the Kansas plant. The FDA warned the company following a 2004 inspection of its New Jersey factory after it failed to flag food made for zoo cats of the risk of mad cow disease if the product were fed to cattle."

The FDA is stretched incredibly thin. Massive budget cuts for their department have led to a loss of many inspectors, but that's still no excuse. we MUST demand that Congrees look into this to see if FDA funding is up to that point where the food supply of animals and humans alike are being properly inspected. This is not a story that is (or should) just going to go away like I'm sure they hope it will!

[randalds]

It's time to demand a congressional investigation into where the FDA screwed up and let this happen. Not just because of the deaths of so many dogs and cats (as if that wasn't bad enough) but because they are the same people charged with keeping the human food supply safe. This could have just as easily been contaminated baby food and pet food. Our government is legally required to ensure that all cat and dog food is also safe for human consumption and it's obviously not the case here.

[tracyadkins]

Our cat BigFace became gravely ill with profound kidney failure after eating a pouch of special kitty cat food purchased at Wal-Mart. I agree the manufacturer was remiss in not alerting the public sooner. My cat will require a 300 cc bi-weekly fluid bolus, special diet and medications for the rest of life, the length of which remains uncertain. If not for the amazing and prompt response of Dr. Ard and his team at Southway Animal Clinic in Lewiston Idaho, our beloved cat most certainly would be dead.
The hardest thing to understand is that we provided him a diet touted as healthy in good faith that it was safe and it may yet take his life. This has been heartbreaking for our family.

[nothappyatall]

"Majerczyk said she took the 9-year-old cat to its first-ever veterinarian visit the day of the recall."

You mean to say this woman NEVER took her cat to the vet in over NINE years?? not even for vaccinations???

"The company said it had not seen the suit and had no comment. The FDA had no comment on the company's delay in announcing the recal"

It will see this one and hundreds more soon enough and the only comments we want from them are;

When are you shutting your plant down and going bye bye?

When do the owners of affected pets get their checks?

Whose head rolls for this?

Who is going to ensure this doesn't happen again?

[cleanitup3]

If one in six animals died in the food trials why was this food allowed on the market? When did the US government learn of this? This is a travesty and tragedy and clearly brings to mind a situation in China where cold medicine was made with antifreeze, killing children. When will our regulators regulate properly? Will the kind of activity in third world countries become more and more prevalent here? Will the mighty dollar become more important than all life? If there was information published on the trials ( which should be required of all trials, food and drugs alike for humans and animals) this should not have been allowed.

[susanhelit]

I know there's more than merely 13 - everyone who has a sick or dead pet needs to contact the FDA.