Pet owner unhappy with melamine-tainted petfood lawsuit settlement

A woman whose cat died from eating tainted pet food is unhappy with the settlement pet owners received compared to the compensation lawyers received in a class-action lawsuit related to the 2007 melamine-tainted petfood imported from China, NBC reported.
Kathy Forcier's cat, who died from eating "Special Kitty" food purchased at Walmart, was one of as many as 50,000 dogs and cats sickened or killed by the 2007 melamine-tainted petfood incident, in which as many as 150 pet foods produced by Menu Foods were recalled. Forcier was part of a class-action lawsuit with more than 24,000 people against Menu Foods that settled for US$24 million. Yet, she says she received a settlement check for US$58.76, about half of the cost of her cat's vet bills, while attorneys in the case received US$7.4 million. "It was an absolute insult," said Forcier.  The lead law firm in the case, Wexler Wallace of Chicago, would not disclose a breakdown of payouts or the number of checks that were mailed to claimants in California, USA, where Forcier lives. "Every claimant has the right to expect privacy with respect to their individual claims and I am going to respect that," said attorney Kenneth Wexler, who handled the case. "The range of recovery is not relevant."  "He didn't lose a pet," said Forcier. "He didn't lose a member of his family." 

FDA seizes petfood stored in unsanitary conditions

The US Food and Drug Administration confiscated more than 1,500 cases of human and animal food products stored at Mid-States Closeouts, a distribution warehouse in Ellsworth, Wisconsin, USA, under a federal warrant investigating pest contamination.

Tainted petfood case ends in fine, probation

Stephen and Sally Miller, the couple who imported tainted melamine from China that killed or sickened thousands of pets in 2007, were recently sentenced in Missouri, USA, according to the The Kansas City Star.
The judge fined the couple and their company ChemNutra Inc. US$35,000 in addition to placing them on probation for three years and barring them from importing petfood ingredients.

French scientist explains the effects of DON

Mycotoxin intestinal absorption – specifically the effects of DON on the gastrointestinal tract – is the subject of one of the latest videos on Biomin’s Mycotoxin Channel on YouTube.
In a one-minute-plus clip, Dr. Isabelle Oswald of the French National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA) explains what happens in the intestines of animals as a result of the mycotoxin DON.