Menu Foods Poisoning May Have Killed 39,000 Cats and Dogs Nationwide

A new analysis of veternary hospital records concluded that the Menu Foods tainted pet food case may have sickened or killed 39,000 pets acrosse the United States. This is a horrific number of pets that have been killed due to improper management by the company.

Of course, the liability for Menu Foods is minimal compared to the damage they have caused to families across the country. And because pets are not eligible for damages, the company will have very little incentive to fix its proceedures to the level they should going forward.

Banfield, The Pet Hospital, said an analysis of its database, compiled from records collected by its more than 615 veterinary hospitals, suggests that three out of every 10,000 cats and dogs that ate the pet food contaminated with melamine developed kidney failure. There are an estimated 60 million dogs and 70 million cats in the United States, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.
The hospital chain saw 1 million dogs and cats during the three months when the more than 100 brands of now-recalled contaminated pet food were sold. It saw 284 extra cases of kidney failure among cats during that period, or a roughly 30 percent increase, when compared with background rates.
“It has meaning, when you see a peak like that. We see so many pets here, and it coincided with the recall period,” said veterinarian Hugh Lewis, who oversees the mining of Banfield’s database to do clinical studies. The chain continues to share its data with the Food and Drug Administration. via My Way News