Dog and Cat Owners File California-Wide Class Action Lawsuit Over Pet Food Poisoning

Los Angeles, California (PRWeb) March 28, 2007 -- Class counsel, Helmer Friedman LLP and Schonbrun De Simone Seplow Harris & Hoffman LLP, announced today that Lois Grady of Sacramento, California, and Kaye Steinsapir of Los Angeles, California, have filed a California-wide class action lawsuit against the international pet food company Menu Foods of Ontario, Canada, Nutro Products, Inc., and PETCO for allegedly manufacturing and selling pet food contaminated with aminopterin - a highly toxic rat poison. The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and assigned case number BC368561.

Ms. Grady and Ms. Steinsapir allege that each of their cats became extremely ill as a result of eating cat food manufactured by Menu Foods. Defendant Menu Foods has recalled over 60 million cans and pouches of wet, or "cuts and gravy" style, dog and cat foods sold under popular brand names such as Iams, Eukanuba, Nutro Natural Choice, Nutro Ultra, Special Kitty, Loving Meals, Winn Dixie, Science Diet.

The Complaint alleges that "although Menu Foods has issued what is purported to be one of the largest, if not the largest, recalls of products in the pet food industry's history, countless pets have died, experienced kidney failure and/or suffered other serious adverse health consequences as a result of eating the contaminated food." The Complaint also alleges that the defendants knew or should have known that the pet food was defective and posed an unreasonable safety risk to the safety of animals who would consume itand that the defendants concealed from members of the consuming public the nature and scope of the product defect.

"Pet owners should immediately go to the Menu Foods website -- http://www.menufoods.com/recall/ -- to see if their pet food has been recalled," warned class counsel Michael D. Seplow. "The list of recalled pet food not only includes 42 lines of cat food and 53 lines of dog food under many different brand names such as Nutriplan, Iams, Hy-Vee, America's Choice, but also many different private label or grocery store brands such as Food Lion, Publix, Schnucks, Stater Bros., Save-A-Lot, Winn Dixie, Wegmans, and Tops."

Gregory D. Helmer, counsel for plaintiffs, advised: "If your pets have suffered symptoms of contaminated pet food, immediately take them to a veterinarian. Do not discard the unused pet food; instead mark it in indelible ink with the words 'Do Not Eat,' 'Poisoned,' or 'Contaminated' and make certain to store it in a safe place that is beyond the reach of pets and children. Later, the pet food can be tested for the presence of aminopterin and other contaminants. In addition, pet owners should save their receipts from where they purchased their pet food, save any veterinary bills and burial bills, locate photographs of their pets while they were alive, take a photograph of their deceased pets, and journal the loss of their pets to establish pain and suffering from the death of their pets."

Pet owners with animals injured or killed by the pet food poisoning who wish to learn more about the lawsuit and report their experiences to plaintiffs' counsel should contact attorneys Gregory D. Helmer/Andrew H. Friedman (http://www.helmerfriedman.com) at 310-396-7714 or Michael D. Seplow/Michael Morrison (http://www.sdshh.com) at 310-396-0731.

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