Anger Grows Over Tainted Pet Food

Photos
Pet Food Claims Animal Lives
Pet food contaminated with rat poison has been linked to the deaths of at least 15 cats and one dog across the United States.

He said his clients "are worried, and they should be. At first I thought this was just the normal hysteria you get from people hearing something like this, but it seems like a bigger deal than we thought before. That makes me nervous."

At Fairfax Animal Hospital, veterinarian Jerry Goldfarb tested three dogs who had been fed food on the tainted lists, but none had fallen ill.

In Easton, Md., Jasmine, a 9-year-old toy poodle, was put to sleep last week after she suffered kidney failure, which her veterinarian said probably resulted from eating tainted Iams cuts and gravy dog food.

The dog's death has left Becki Wilson's 2-year-old granddaughter devastated. "One of her first two words was 'Jasmine,' " she said. She said she was "sickened" that the food she served her dog for nine years might have killed her.

The poodle became ill March 12, and blood tests the next day showed acute renal failure, said Chad Hutchison, veterinarian at Community Animal Hospital in Easton. "The level of waste products built up in her bloodstream indicating her kidneys weren't working were off-my-chart high," Hutchison said.

Wilson sent $700 worth of veterinary bills to Iams in hope of being reimbursed, and she and her husband are considering joining a class-action lawsuit.

In Lucy's case, Heidary and her boyfriend paid $300 for a posthumous analysis of tissue, and the results showed Lucy died of kidney failure, secondary to either a decreased blood flow or toxin, said veterinarian Matthew Felrice of Quince Orchard Veterinary Hospital.

"Lucy was the first patient I thought of when I heard" of the tainted pet food, Felrice said. Although he could not be certain, because of issues with her first treatment in West Virginia, Felrice said, "It's very likely that there was some sort of toxin that caused this."

As she sat in her mother's Montgomery County home yesterday, Heidary was surrounded by photos of six-pound Lucy and the dog's favorite squeaky ball. Nearby were Lucy's medical records and the vet bills, which Heidary does not know how she will pay. She, too, is considering legal action.

Heidary recalled buying Lucy for $1,000 from a breeder, careful to make sure she had a healthy dog. "She was just my best friend," she said.

Heidary, a student at Shepherd University in West Virginia, said she always drove to Frederick to buy the higher-quality food by the case because she could not get it near campus.

When Lucy grew ill -- vomiting and dry-heaving -- Heidary took her to a veterinarian in West Virginia, and when that did not go well, she brought Lucy back to her parents' veterinarian in Montgomery. Felrice recommended that Lucy be taken to a critical-care hospital in Gaithersburg, where a week in intensive care cost more than $6,000.

Lucy seemed to be getting better for a time, then did not make it. "It was the worst time to lose her. She was just getting out of puppyhood, and we had really bonded," she said.

Staff writer Megan Greenwell and researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.