A Florida woman is blaming Friskies cat food for the death of her beloved Smokey.
Kim Herget, of New Port Richey, told local news affiliate WTSP that after feeding her five-year-old cat, Smokey, Friskies for several days, the animal fell ill. When Herget took him to the vet, he was diagnosed with acute kidney failure and put to sleep.
Cause and effect?
Herget had switched to Friskies from a different cat food. Her vet was unable to determine whether the food had caused Smokey's illness, and the cat was so sick that he couldn't draw enough blood to run additional tests. A medical chart prepared by the vet said the only difference before and after the kidney failure was the cat's change in diet.
Friskies was the subject of a class-action lawsuit several years ago. While Herget says she was aware of the suit, she assumed that the litigation had spurred parent company Purina to fix any remaining problems with the food.
But Herget started looking around on the Internet and soon found accounts of similar experiences from other cat owners. Many of those accounts included a switch to Friskies followed by throwing up, hair loss, and, in some cases, death -- all symptoms that Herget says Smokey experienced.
Pet food woes
While the cause of Smokey's death is still unclear -- and probably will remain so -- it raises old questions about the safety of pet food in general. In March 2007, Menu Foods recalled 53 brands of dog food and 42 brands of cat food after tests showed the foods caused kidney failure. Many of the brands were found to be infected with rodent poisoning, a revelation that then-CEO Paul Henderson was unable to explain.
A number of lawsuits concerning that recall, which were eventually consolidated in a New Jersey federal court, were settled in late 2008.
A separate lawsuit targeted Canidae, after a number of consumers said their pets became sick after eating that brand of food. Canidae dismissed a lab report from 2007 showing that the food contained acetaminophen, a type of painkiller.
Importance of due diligence
Herget's experience also highlights the need for thorough research before making the decision to switch your cat or dog food. Consumer websites like ConsumerAffairs.com have both good and bad reviews of many brands of pet food, and let you know which behaviors following a switch are normal and which ones are not.
None of this is much comfort to Herget, who told WTSP that she cries herself to sleep on a regular basis. WTSP said that for Herget, as for many pet owners, “pets are not just animals, they are part of the family.”
