Pets Are Family Too

Menu Foods of Ontario, Canada have received their preliminary approval of settlement offer for it’s contaminated pet food of the April 2007 pet food recall that harmed or killed hundreds of dogs and cats in the U.S. and Canada.

On May 30, 2008, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey gave the green light to Menu Foods to settle pet food recall lawsuits with a preliminary approval of the settlement agreement. The approval of the agreement in this stage allows the appointment of a claims administrator who is responsible for receiving and processing of the claims filed by pet owners who purchased or obtained recalled pet food, or whose pet consumed or used the tainted Menu Foods Pet Food of the massive April 2007 pet food recall. The Menu Foods Settlement Agreement has a Settlement Fund of US$24 million that may allow recovery of up to 100% of all economic damages incurred by pet owners,subject to certain limitations, and is expected to settle over 100 class action lawsuits filed in U.S. and Canadian courts. Specifically, these claims are “made available to persons in the United States and Canada who purchased or obtained, or whose pets used or consumed, recalled pet food.”

As an update to the Menu Foods Pet Food Recall Settlement Agreement, a Claims Administrator has been appointed and listed as follows,

In re Pet Food Products Liability Litigation
Claims Administrator
c/o Heffler, Radetich & Saitta LLP
P.O. Box 890
Philadelphia, PA 19105-0890
1-800-392-7785
www.petfoodsettlement.com

Menu Foods requests that all claims be made to the Administrator listed above, and Not to Contact them directly regarding claims. At the time of writing, the website www.petfoodsettlement.com is currently under construction, but plans to be up no later than June 16, 2008.

Menu Foods, one of the largest pet food manufacturers involved in the massive pet food recall of 2007, is a step closer to paying settlement claims to pet owners. The Ontario, Canada based Menu Foods who makes over 90 brands of pet food products, announced an update on the settlement of claims for pet owners whose dogs and cats were harmed or killed from eating their contaminated pet food products recalled in 2007 in the United States and Canada.

According to Menu Foods,

The Settlement Agreement will create a Settlement Fund of US$24 million that will
allow a potential recovery of up to 100% of all economic damages related to the pet food
recall that were incurred by pet owners and persons who purchased recalled pet food in
the United States and in Canada, subject to several limitations. The Settlement Fund will
be administered by a neutral third party claims administrator appointed by the court.

A hearing is scheduled for the U.S. on May 30, 2008 in Camden, New Jersey to approve the preliminary settlement agreement. Menu Foods is asking pet owners to read their website for the claims process instead of contacting them directly since the administration of the claims will be conducted by a neutral third party. Read the rest of this entry »

Pollution and toxins are major topics of interest in our world today, especially during this “Earth Week”! We hear people and organizations talk about how to reduce pollution and halt global warming almost on a daily basis. Eco-friendly ads by all manner of businesses appear on our television sets more frequent now than ever than in the past! So, it should be no surprise to learn that our beloved pet family members are not immune to pollutants and that they also are contaminated with chemicals present in the environment and our households.

A recently released study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), of American dogs and cats revealed that some of the same chemical pollutants found in people are also present in in our pet family members. According to the study, pets typically had higher concentrations of the chemical tested than those of humans. Out of the 70 chemicals tested, pets showed evidence of 48 of them, including mercury, heavy metals and fire retardants. Many of the chemicals used in the test are often the same ones monitored in people by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

How can this happen? Just as with small children in the home, domesticated dogs and cats often sniff and eat off of the floors, carpets and grass where contaminants tend to reside in abundance. Our pets usually drink tap water from the faucet which may contain contaminants from the municipal water supplies. There is also pet food that may contain high levels of mercury that we feed our cats and dogs on a daily basis. More importantly, the findings in this Environmental Working Group (EWG) study, may also show people who have pets, that their present environment may be more toxic than they know, if they have pets who get cancer and other diseases, sort of an early warning signal, sad to say. Read the rest of this entry »

In the massive pet food recall of 2007, many of the major pet food distributors and suppliers had to remove tons of name brand dog and cat food from store shelves due to pet food contamination. Many of the contaminated pet foods removed store shelves contained wheat gluten tainted with melamine, a toxic chemical used in plastics, imported from China. The tainted dog and cat foods were responsible for many deaths of dogs and cats as well serious injuries for others.

Now almost a year later, Menu Foods, of Ontario, Canada, one of the largest pet food suppliers have agreed in principle to settlement of claims over their contaminated pet food in the pet food recall disaster of 2007. According to the agreement of the settlement, Menu Foods is awaiting for more conditions to be met before accepting claims from consumers whose pets were affected by their toxic pet food. The estimated settlement amount is around 55 million Canadian Dollars when the terms of the settlement are expected to be finalized and approved after a hearing on May 14, 2008. After, approval of a claims process for consumers, notifications will go out to consumers on how, when and where to file their claims for recalled pet food. Read the rest of this entry »

In this time of home foreclosures at an all-time high in the United States, not only are families losing their homes, but also pet family members are also suffering in the loss of homes. Recently, it was stated that 1 out of every 100 households were in a foreclosure stage. Foreclosure on a home mortgage is the process by which the lender repossess the home from the borrower who cannot repay their loan in full. Generally, foreclosure happens when a borrower may fall behind on monthly mortgage payments due to illness, job loss and other circumstances and a lender will initiate the foreclosure process on the borrower to recover the loan amount.

At these foreclosure rates, we may know of someone who is going through this weary process and their pet family members are also going through tense times. One of the worst casualties in the foreclosure process is when a homeowner loses their home in foreclosure and have to relocate when the lender gains possession and they abandon their pets. In some of the most inhumane and disgusting cases people are vacating their homes and leaving their pets to starve, either too embarrassed to admit they are in foreclosure, or figuring the animals will be found and taken care of. In these cases, the scenario has turned tragic for dogs, cats, birds, horses and other animals. Pet abandonment is a high occurrence when a family loses their home in foreclosure and may have to move into accommodations that do not accept pets. Many pets are left alone in the empty houses with little or no food for periods of time until someone in the neighborhood discover that they are there or a home inspection can reveal a pet on the brink of starvation and other health afflictions.

There is something we can do to help these pets before and after they have been abandoned. We must become as neighbors and reach out to help a struggling family facing the dreadful foreclosure process. Armed with information, we may be able to help them with placing their pets in a safer place, than left alone in vacant properties. Read the rest of this entry »