Wal-Mart included in pet food recall lawsuit - BloggingStocks (May 29)
 A mc dog passed away from kidney failure has filed suit against Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT), Menu Foods (an ingredient supplier blamed for the recall) and Del Monte. The charges include language like "failed to prevent the distribution of tainted pet foods after the discovery of contaminated wheat gluten in their ingredients."



Court: Menu Foods harassed pet owners (May 26)
Ontario, Canada-based Menu Foods has hired Crawford & Co., an insurance adjustor in Atlanta, to contact pet owners who called the company to report animal illnesses or deaths, according to the hearing transcript.

At a previous hearing on Friday, May 18, the judge had cautioned Menu and Crawford that they should not contact people who had joined one of the lawsuits against the company. Legally, Menu cannot contact those plaintiffs directly but must go through their lawyers.

But in affidavits presented in court Wednesday, pet owners said they received calls that weekend from Crawford representatives who pressed them to answer questions even after being told the owners had hired lawyers. In some cases, the pet owners also received multiple calls from Crawford's computerized phone banks after telling representatives they were represented by attorneys, according to the affidavits.

"It appears that the company was engaging in a cynical strategy, designed to settle some of the strongest claims cheaply and induce pet owners to give up information it might be able to use to defend against others," Blim & Edelson said in a letter Friday that was sent to clients and posted on Internet blogs for pet owners.

Nationwide Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Pet Food Companies (May 15)
A cat and dog owner from Michigan and two cat and dog owners from Florida have filed a nationwide class action against food industry giants Mars, Inc., Proctor and Gamble Co., Colgate Palmolive Company, Del Monte Foods, Co., and Nestle U.S.A. Inc.

These manufacturers have a combined approximate 70% of the market share in the $16 billion dollar a year pet food industry. The suit also names as defendants Nutro Products, Inc., Menu Foods, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Target Corp., Publix Supermarkets, Inc., Winn Dixie Stores, Inc., as manufacturers and marketers of their own brand pet food and retailers PETCO Animal Supplies, Inc., Pet Supermarket, Inc., and Petsmart Inc.

Hawai'i lawsuits filed today tied to pet-food recall
Two suits, a  multiparty personal injury suit on behalf of Hawai'i pet owners who suffered the death or severe illness of a pet and a consumer class-action suit for Hawai'i consumers who purchased the tainted pet foods.

The suits maintain that Menu Foods products manufactured between Dec. 3 and March 6 are suspected to have been tainted by contaminated wheat flour, mislabeled as wheat gluten or rice protein concentrate. The flour was reportedly purchased by Menu Foods from two sources in China

Menu Foods has reportedly admitted that the flour was not tested to ensure that it was safe for consumption by dogs and cats.

Legal experts examine how much a dog's life is worth (April 30)
Even before the recent pet-food scare, legal experts say there has been a growing legal recognition of pets' value. Today 42 states have made cruelty to animals a felony, compared with seven states that had felony provisions before 1994, according to the Animal Legal Defense Fund. In 2000, Tennessee created a statute allowing noneconomic damages if a pet is killed or injured by negligence, though caps them at $5,000.

Pet Food Fall-Out Continues, with Recalls, FDA Raids, Lawsuits (April 27)
The USDA will compensate hog farmers affected by the tainted pet food. Owners of pets killed by the tainted pet food, on the other hand, get nothing.

Recall leads pet food maker to sue ingredient supplier (April 26)
Menu Foods Midwest Corp., based in Emporia, is seeking damages “substantially in excess of $75,000” and wants to force ChemNutra Inc., of Las Vegas, to pay costs associated with the recall of dog and cat food.

Chasing justice in pet-food lawsuits (April 22)
Class Action building into the largest wave of animal litigation ever to sweep into the American court system - one sure to pit ancient legal notions of an animal's practical worth against the emotional value of the new "fur kids."

Legal cases address pets' value to owners (April 28)
Pet food poisons thousands of US animals (April 14)
Lawyers Set to Argue New Legal Theory in Pet-Poisoning Cases (April 9)
PUTTINGA PRICE ON PETGRIEF  (April 8)