Petition to Require Pet Food Companies to be Held Accountable for Damages
WE, THE UNDERSIGNED:
Request that the U.S. Congress enact legislation to require pet food manufacturers and the companies that market those pet food brands to be held financially liable for any medical costs related to or contributing to the illness and/or death of a pet that can be reasonably attributed to the food consumed by the pet. And that all pet foods include the name of the manufacturer, not just the brand under which it is sold.
This petition is in response to the thousands of pet parents and owners who have suffered under the Menu Foods recall and their slow response that started on March 16th, 2007.
Sign after the jump.
Or read about all the latest news surrounding the recall.
In creating this petition, our motive is three-fold:
- First, we want to ease the pain and suffering of those who have lost their pets due to mistakes and negligence of pet food makers. The loss or illness of a pet can be emotionally devastating. On top of it, the financial burden of uninsured veterinary treatment can be a double-whammy, leading pet parents and their families to significant financial damage — often affecting other family members such as kids and the elderly. This legislation will create a venue for settling these cases fairly and out of court, eliminating the need for a lengthy court case, which companies rely on in order to reduce the likelihood of payout.
- Second, create a financial motive for pet food makers and marketers to set higher standards for pet food. We want to let them know that consumers are interested in higher-grade pet food. And that the longer a company waits in issuing warnings or recalls related to their product, the larger the potential financial damage. This new law would hold the manufacturers (often smaller, less financially sound organizations) and also the larger corporations that market the branded foods — who ultimately control what goes in them.
- Third, a clear public disclosure of who actually makes the food. Since the financial liability falls to the brand as well as the manufacturer, the name of the company that actually produced the food should be obvious to the consumer. How much clearer would this recall have been if the food was labeled “Made by Menu Foods”?
Once the final tally of the pet deaths is complete, the petition will be delivered to the head of the congressional committee that controls FDA funding (Dave Obey, D-WI, chairman of House Appropriations Committee).
IMPORTANT!
For your petition to be valid, we require:
- An accurate email address
- Your First and Last name (In the comment field)
- Your Zip code (In the comment field)
Your email will not appear below and will be kept securely by us. Your email will be used ONLY in the purposes of carrying out the petition. It will not be used for spam, sold or marketed to any other company. We hate spam as much as you do. Only your name, Zip code, and any comment you make will appear.
This petition is sponsored by itchmo.com. Please feel free to start your own email campaign to this page. The short link to use is http://www.itchmo.com/petition
March 28th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
91604
Kathy Cuevas
I don’t believe in frivilous lawsuits, but with the amount of money the pet food industry is making, basic product safety inspections should be mandatory, and proper package labelling as to manufactuer(s) and country of origin of ingredient(s) should also be required. America has traditionally been the world’s breadbasket; why are we importing wheat from China? I almost lost one of my cats–thankfully he seems to be recovering–but this should never have happened.
March 28th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
91604
Kathy Cuevas
March 28th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Tim Ilchene
Hamilton Ontario Canada
L8P 4s4
March 28th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
85032
Susan Conrad
Sammy & Shadow…2 kitties that by the Grace of God are still alive.
March 28th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
19968 Bonnie Helder
After being hospitalized for a week at Savannah Animal Hospital in Lewes, DE. My 14 year old feline, Tailgate, passed away in my arms this morning.
I support anything and everything that can be done to hold these people accountable and take every measure to insure that something like this does not ever happen again.
March 28th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Bonnie Chow L3S 3E9
March 28th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
63103
Ian Thomas
March 28th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Mississauga, Ontario
L5N 2Y6
March 28th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
L5N2Y6, mississauga ontario
March 28th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Heather Easton L3T 2L2
March 28th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Heather Easton L3T2L2
March 28th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Valentina Vuljaj
85297
March 28th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
60640, Iram Mahomed
March 28th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
L6H 5G1 Maureen McKee
March 28th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
18470 j.morris Lost our dog, acute renal failure, Jan 07. Read all the posts, this wet and dry dog food issue is lengthly and a very serious matter. How much toxin, germs, and most definitely ‘unnecessary - unhealthy’ ingredients’ , etc. are in our pets’ food to begin with, along with the added alarm of how much overloaded toxin got in the food recently to destroy so many of our ‘best friends’ ? It would become a very serious matter to all companies to keep our foods , (humans and pets), very healthy ‘IF’ stricter laws were developed and enforced - i.e. compensation if something of this nature and magnitude occurs. Maybe then it won’t be so easily brushed away. Sad, anna nicole smith is getting more air time and attention and she’s not current news, so what does that say to all of us faced with the loss of our pets and the medical expenses of those gone or still in medical care from this issue ? The companies hid the fact there was a problem, and even up to today’s date (March 28th), they ‘are still not facing’ the fact that their numbers are way off what people are reporting / both ill and deaths, and the ‘type of foods’ involved or possibly involved. It would be better to use more caution, then to be relaxed on something so detrimental to anyone’s health, our pets included. They don’t even want to hear from those of us trying to report the suspect dry foods. Heck, they still claim only 15 cats and one dog, and ten of those animals ‘they killed’ in their tests. Come on now, let’s be real about this. That means, 6 citizens are telling the truth about their pet’s illness/death. The rest of us are distraught because we have nothing better to do than make ourselves sick with grief over losing our pets over the very same symptoms, illnesses and deaths from acute renal failure ??? I guess we’re just coincidental according to them, that is if they were open to listen to us in the first place.
Also other products must label their packages with “Manufactured for “so and so” by “so and so”. And it should be the same for any food (including dog food) that is partially manufactured by a particular plant. As many of us are now finding out now, some bigger named brands and holistic brands are partially manufactured by this very same Menu Foods, we have the right to know that and it hasn’t been very easy finding this information out, many of the companies are holding out on telling their customers this information via mail or telephone since this whole incident occurred ! Why should this product be any different, this way everyone knows who they want to stay away from, which is our right to do if we so choose to, in this country.
Something is very wrong in the food and pet food industry and will continue to be if someone of power doesn’t step in and make this right with accountability and tougher enforced laws.
March 28th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Bonnie Koenig 98074
March 28th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Denise Winter
Nanaimo BC Canada
V9R 4R2
March 28th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
pet food companies should be held liable for damages if there food is bad-and should get the info out sooner
March 28th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Rolanda Tovey
Spring Bay, ON Canada
P0P 2B0
March 28th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
97499-Mary Kelley
March 28th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Carlin Buller
M9W 1X4
March 28th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Mark Lepine
m5b 2j4
March 28th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
m5b 2j4
Mark Lepine
March 28th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
78028 Marjorie Simpson
March 28th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
I will never use any of your products ever again. And will suggest that all my friends and family do likewise. 78028 Marjorie Simpson
March 28th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
L7E3V3
March 28th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Do not feed your pet low quality food.
Jennifer Lowerison L7E3V3
March 28th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Sandra Shaw 99801
March 28th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
18015 Beth Smith
March 28th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
64734, Barbara Pearce
March 28th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
95361–Jann Anderson
March 28th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Don Jackson
North Hollywood, CA 91601
March 28th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Shelley Tesarek - 78619
March 28th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
When will these big companies realize that our pets are very important to us. We demand that they take care of and be responsible for the trust we are forced to put in them. When only a few canning companies make the dog food for so many brands the dog food brand companies should over see the process personally because we are putting our trust in them and their brand. Drusella Ponzo
March 28th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Marilyn Born 92627
March 28th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
92627
Melanie Kilian
March 28th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Valerie Niles M4C2X6
These pet food companies are more than happy to profit from our love for our animals, and in their marketing materials recognize that an owner-pet relationship is much, much more. Now that they are responsible for the pain and suffering caused to our “children”, it’s only right that they pay for the damage.
Asking pet owners to take the financial hit of medical bills ON TOP OF dealing with broken hearts is adding INSULT to injury.
March 28th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Brandon Knueppel 44129
March 28th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Terry Sansone 01983
March 28th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
91610
Mark Martin
Not only do I think that the pet food companies should be held responsible for what is happening to our nation’s pets, I think that the foreign companies who caused this to happen in the first place should be held accountable. It is high time that we stop outsourcing jobs to foreign countries and we should stop contracting foreign countries to service our needs when we can produce the products right here in the United States; especially if those foreign countries have no regard for our standards of safety and security. We should re-develop our own resources for our own United States citizens.
March 28th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
April Paonessa
12524
March 28th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Melissa Laituri 92627
March 28th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
92627 Melissa Laituri
March 28th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
Steven Anderson 98059
Furthermore a system for reporting unexplained disease and death of animals should be developed, as exists for humans, in order to discover trends and detect problems before they reach this scale.
Such a system would provide benefits not only to animal health but also to human health.
March 28th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Steven Anderson 98059
Reposting since I do not see the message after submitting after the first time.
Furthermore a system for reporting unexplained disease and death among animals, as exists for humans, should be established to detect trends and patterns before they affect thousands.
This would provide benefits for both animal and human health.
One complication will be proof. Our cat was diagnosed on 2/5 and treatment began, but we had no idea what the cause was. This food was given as a treat, purchased as needed. We don’t keep our empty pet food containers for a couple months just in case of a problem, who does? As a result our empties are in the land fill and we have no legal evidence whatsoever. The cat has not gained weight after 9 weeks of treatment but is more active and energetic lately.
March 28th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Odette Landry, Jacksonville , Florida, 32259
It is an outrage that our pets have been killed and or deathly ill because of FOOD, we pay for and expensive food at that. ( Iams!!!) I watched my cat dye in my arms after taking exceptional care of him for 17 years and he died because of the food I gave him. These companies definately knew there were problems and tried to hide it, that’s what is upsetting to me, it could have been prevented. There should be more checks and balances in all food distrubition human and pet. Monti was a huge part of my family and it has been devasting for us. My only hope is that some one takes responsibility for their actions.
March 28th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Minnie Richardson 52577
March 28th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Vivian Arzola, 32807
I am highly disappointed, disgusted and upset about this whole situation.
March 28th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
08068
Wilma Sachenbacher
I agree with others that the manufactures should be held accountable.
March 28th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
Denise O’Leary M5s k5