Further info: I just spoke with Dr. Donna. She never could pin down exactly why Colin, a health, happy four year old, would suddenly develop liver failure and die. She believes that, given symptomology, this is what killed my beautiful baby. It’s my fault. I fed him the Purina, and I will never forgive myself for it.

Quoted from The Associated Press on MyHughesNet. There are numerous up-to-the-minute postings I located by searching “Purina Beneful Lawsuit” on Goodsearch. Another great article by Susan Scutti is at Medical Daily.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A dog owner has filed a lawsuit against a pet food company alleging that thousands of dogs have been sickened or died from eating the company’s dry dog food.
Pet owner Frank Lucido filed the suit on Feb. 5, in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California against Nestle Purina PetCare Company.
Lucido claims he fed his three dogs Beneful, and in a month, two were sick and one was dead.
The suit alleges the food contains an animal toxin used in automobile antifreeze.
In the suit, Lucido alleges that in the past four years, 3,000 consumers have complained online about dogs becoming ill or dying after eating Beneful, having shown “consistent symptoms,” including stomach and related internal bleeding, liver malfunction or failure, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, weight loss, seizures and kidney failure.
Purina’s website says it uses “an FDA-approved food additive” that is also in human foods. Purina issued a statement saying “there are no quality issues with Beneful.”
The suit asks that Purina pay Lucido and others in the class action lawsuit unspecified damages and restitution.
In recent years, Beneful has faced two class action lawsuits that were dismissed by the courts.
However, in a lawsuit settled in May, Purina and Waggin’ Train LLC agreed to create a $6.5 million fund to compensate pet owners who claimed their pets were sickened after eating China-made jerky treats.
At the time, Food and Drug Administration officials said the pet treats were linked more than 1,000 deaths in dogs and more than 4,800 complaints of animal illness. Three humans were sickened after eating the treats.
Lucidio is seeking compensation for himself and other pet owners who bought Beneful in the past four years and “incurred any out of pocket costs due to illness, injury or death of their dog resulting from the ingestion of Beneful.”
2015 Courtesy of The Associated Press
The Beneful Toxic Dog Food Class Action Lawsuit is Frank Lucido v. Nestle Purina Petcare Company, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. If you think your pet was sickened by tainted food, contact attorney James Young with the Morgan & Morgan Litigation Group at 813-275-5272.
In 2007, roughly 17,000 pets were sickened — and 4,000 dogs and cats died — from tainted commercial pet foods made with ingredients imported from China. In an article here, aimed at industry professionals, it was found that, while several companies stopped importing materials from China, Purina refused to reply to requests for information regarding where they sourced from. The only information I can find online about their current sourcing practices says that Purina foods are made in the U.S. but are sourced out of China. A search of the Purina website indicates that Purina follows the CA Transparency in Supply Chains act – but a thorough search of the site for the words “China” or “Chinese” got me articles on the Chinese Crested dog, nothing about whether they import ingredients from China. A search for “import” and “imported” brought up:
Waggin’ Train® – Purina®
Click here for information about the Dog Treat Products Settlement for chicken
jerky treats imported from China. VISIT WAGGINTRAIN.COM. Learn more about …
However, when you click on the link you get marketing for “100% natural and healthy Waggin’ Train Treats” – with very tiny type at the bottom of the page about the law suit settlement.
Now, this is important for ALL OF US dog and cat owners. Purina may have gotten “spanked” in 2007, but what do they care? They make multiple billions from pet owners every year. $6,500,000 is pocket change. I imagine the CEO has that in his wallet for a nice dinner out. Big corporations actually calculate how expensive it is to make changes as compared to what it would cost to settle lawsuits. Yes, people’s lives have a dollar value they use in their calculations. Did you know that your life is worth $129,000? Well, maybe just $50,000 – it depends…
jinxballinmouthThis whole Beneful lawsuit is particularly important to me – about a month ago, my Boxer, HiJinx, started having horrific seizures and vomiting. A couple thousand dollars in vet bills and a change of food later and she is feeling better, but it was a very close call. I nearly lost her several times, and had nearly decided to put her down just to stop her suffering, but she started feeling better after medication (she is still on) for liver and kidney issue and for the seizures. She is now off the seizure medication, but will take the meds for who knows how long? Her previous food? Beneful. She loved that stuff. Doctor Donna (Donna Valori at Table Mountain Vet – she is Supervet!) recommended I change her food as well. I put her on Bil-Jac Grain Free Adult, and, though I am sure the medication is helping her feel better the Bil-Jac can’t hurt – and now that I know about the problems with Beneful, well, I feel like a real monster for feeding it to her in the first place. I should have known better. But with the expense of my chemo, etc., well, she still was eating better than me – or at least that is what I thought as I also make her rice and veggies to go with.
I am just now switching her over from Bil-Jac to “I and Love and You” Nude Food Grain Free Poultry Palooza for a few reasons. First, it is made right here in Colorado, in Boulder, to be exact. They guarantee that their treats are not sourced in China (see my next post) – I just sent them an email to be absolutely 100% certain that they don’t source ANYTHING out of China – or any other third-world country. Then there is the fact that I can get it at my local King Soopers Market instead of having to drive all the way across town to the big box, or even further to the ‘locally’ owned small shop that isn’t really that ‘local’. I cruised the website for quite a while, and everything seems very healthy, but again, I emailed them about the source of all of their ingredients – I will let you know what I find out.
Bottom line? Peanut butter and crackers for me, very expensive dog food for HiJinx. But then again, since I started feeding higher quality food she doesn’t eat as much by as much as ¾ of a cup, her stools don’t smell anywhere near as ‘poopy’ as they used to, and they aren’t as large, so she is processing much more of the food than she was before. Cool. She is also bright-eyed again, which is a HUGE relief!
So, are any of you feeding Beneful? If so, has your pet been sick? Are you joining the lawsuit? Inquiring, pet loving Leiah wants to know!