When Menu Foods, Inc.
decided to recall all of their manufactured “cuts and gravy”
style pet foods in early March of 2007 due to a number of
pet owners complaining that their pets were getting sick,
the door for retribution via lawsuits was opened.
I say this with a little
bit of levity, but just as famous as the Statue of Liberty
is to this fair country, so is the class action lawsuit.
Of
course, when the first news of this terrible tragedy began
to spread, our first thoughts were of the possible millions
of pets who would die prematurely due to what seemed at the
time a mysterious illness connected to these particular
foods. What we later found out was that the wheat gluten,
used by manufacturers here in North America to boost protein
content readings in their pet foods, had been contaminated
with melamine, a dangerous chemical that causes extreme
illness, kidney failure and even death in animals.
The
first class action lawsuit was filed on March 23rd,
2007 in Wisconsin, by over 95 pet owners looking for
compensation for their pet’s death and incurred medical
expenses directly related to their pet ingesting the
contaminated foods. Some pet owners now deal with daily
blood analysis for their pet, keeping a tight eye on such
things as heart and kidney function, not to mention the
incurred veterinarian bills in upwards of thousands of
dollars.
Since
the first lawsuit filed against Menu Foods, Inc., many other
lawsuits have been filed in such states at California,
Idaho, Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Robert Pierce, a Pennsylvanian lawyer, filed the lawsuit in
Pennsylvania of behalf of all pet owners in his State that
have suffered due to the pet food contamination. The
lawsuit accuses the manufacturers of negligence, violations
of consumer protection law and breach of warranty. His
advice to anyone who has been affected by this recall is to
“save your evidence.”
1.
Save any receipts for the contaminated food purchased
2.
Save any contaminated food you may still possess
3.
Save any receipts of medical costs incurred
4.
Speak with your Vet and let them know you are taking
part in a lawsuit and that they may need to prepare a report
stating your pet did in fact get sick due to the specific
contaminated products.
The
purpose of a lawsuit becoming a “class action” lawsuit is to
save court time. As Robert Piece explains, “When you have a
large number of animals, a common question of law, and the
ability to resolve them with one particular lawsuit, that is
why a class action is used -- to help avoid excessive
amounts of court time, deciding each case one case at a
time.”
To
become a part of a class action lawsuit in your State, first
find the law firm that is representing pet owners in your
State. Then contact them and let them know that you wish to
be a part of the class. When a lawsuit is initially filed,
it must be confirmed by a judge of its “class action”
status. Once that is granted, then all potential class
action suit clients will be notified and asked whether or
not they wish to take part in the furtherance of the
lawsuit.
There are a lot of very sad and angry pet owners out there,
and outside of these lawsuits getting the appropriate
compensation for these pet owners, I’d just like to put the
focus back on those precious little fuzzy friends we all
love and adore who are the real victims of this accident.
Please take a moment and remember all those pets that are
now seriously ill or have lost their lives due to the
carelessness of these large commercial manufacturers.
