By now, you’ve do doubt heard about a lawsuit alleging that Purina’s Beneful dog food is dangerous. Depending on the social media post of a link to a story about another social media post that you re-posted, you might now believe that thousands of of dogs (3,000? 4,000?) have died after eating Beneful, which contains dangerous chemicals (automobile antifreeze!).
Like any pet owner, reading such stories — watching CNN cover this scandal at the airport this morning! –had me pretty concerned. But I did what I think very few pet owners (and news outlets) have done, which is track down a copy of the lawsuit and read it. You can do that yourself if you really care about your dog, because as with nearly all news stories that capture our imagination these days, this one is a mixture of truth, exaggeration, and misinformation. I’ll try to clear things up. (I didn’t find a link to the lawsuit, but I downloaded it from Pacer, and I’ll send it to you if you like.)
For starters, you probably know what I do for a living — fight for “little” people who are fighting against big companies. So I have no interest in letting Nestle Purina Petcare Co. off the hook here. It may very well be true that its dog food is inferior, and in some cases has caused serious illness or even death in dogs. It’s possible that Beneful has killed dogs after just a few days of eating it.
But that’s not a widespread phenomenon, or at least the lawsuit fails to provide any compelling evidence — any evidence at all, really — that it is. widespread. In fact, the complaint, which lists four different law firms as representing the plaintiff in this case, cites only a handful of such claims.
The lawsuit’s lead plaintiff is a man named Frank Lucido, who has been through a real tragedy. Lucido had three dogs, and says after feeding them Beneful beginning in December, all three became very ill and one died. Lucido blames Beneful.
The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, claims Lucido isn’t alone. It says that there are some 3,000 complaints from dog owners during the last four years with similar stories of dogs eating Beneful and getting sick — “in many cases very seriously ill, and/or dying.” Where were those complaints filed? Online. Where? I can’t tell you, because the lawsuit doesn’t say. I’ve asked Lucido’s attorneys to clarify, but haven’t heard yet. I’ll let you decide how heavily to weigh a lawsuit’s claim that there have been 50-100 complaints online every month for the past four years about Beneful.
In the meantime, the lawsuit does quote from nine such complaints. One cites a 9-year-old dog named Roxie who died after a few weeks of eating Beneful. Three other writers say their dog died after eating Beneful for a short time. The other five complainers say their dogs became very ill, but did not die, after eating Beneful. It’s unfortunate because not only do they have to contend with their dogs being ill and the vets bills, they might also have to look for lawsuit funding to help them with any other financial issues this might have caused.
The complaints sound awful, of course. But Purina says 1.5 billion — with a B — Beneful meals were served to dogs in 2014. So those claims need to be taken in context. It’s important to know that plenty of products get put through the social media ringer. It’s important to know that anyone can file a lawsuit and seek class action status. These kinds of lawsuits can be very expensive on people, especially in terms of lawyer fees. However, things like lawsuit settlement loans can help people ease their financial stress during their lawsuit, making the process much easier to handle.
It’s also important to know that there have been several flurries of complaints about Beneful before. Back in 2013, there were about 500 complaints left on ConsumerAffairs.com and there was a subsequent flurry of news stories. All the way back in 2007, two Texas residents said their dog died after eating Beneful and there was a similar flurry involving dozens of reports.
Today, there are about 800 entries on ConsumerAffairs.com regarding Beneful. Every one is painful to read. But are there enough to decide the dog food is to blame for the wide variety of ailments listed? Sure, this might be a case of, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Smoke isn’t science, however, and we are still talking about tiny numbers compared to Beneful’s market share.
So what is the science behind the lawsuit? There are two claims:
1. Lucido’s lawyers claim Beneful contains propylene glycol. That’s true. Propylene glycol is also found in antifreeze. That’s true. It’s also found in a lot of dog foods, and it is FDA approved for that use. Is that great? Probably not. Is that causing a massive outbreak of violent dog deaths? For a level-headed opinion on that ingredient, read dogfoodadvisor.com, which basically says it’s probably a good idea to vary your dogs food so you don’t pile on the propylene glycol, but you don’t need to go out and burn all your dry dog food.
2. Lucido’s lawyers also say there are “mycotoxins” in Beneful. DogFoodAdvisors.com will tell you mycotixins, a family of molds that can grow in grains that are poorly handled, can be very dangerous. What evidence do the lawyers have the mycotoxins end up in Beneful? This test, conducted by a group calling itself The Association for Truth in Pet Food. The organization says it conducted blind purchases of eight brands of cat and dog food and found mycotixins in all of them. Beneful was one of two brands that contained a high enough among that it was designated as “high risk.” Below, I’ve pasted a chart from the report which explains the findings in chemical detail that might or might not be of use to you.
Spend some time on The Truth About Pet Food website and make up your own mind about the organization, which advocates for better, safer dog food — and has labeled Beneful’s food a high risk based on its tests. As a caring dog owner, you’d do well to read up on mycotixins and make your own informed decisions. It’s important to note that mycotoxins can grow in dog food after you buy it — say, if you don’t store it in a dry place. And they can grow in other places of your home, too — not just in dog food.
But mycrotoxin poisoning is a very real thing – there have been several outbreaks involving contaminated food, such as this serious incident in 2006. It’s good to bring this problem added attention. It’s something all pet owners need to worry about, not just Beneful users.
Meanwhile, Lucido’s lawyer Jeffrey B. Cereghino has told reporters his team will conduct further testing on Beneful for other toxins. Good. I would have thought such tests might have been beneficial before the accusations against Beneful became the social media story of the day. My hope is that when you pass on the next “Beneful kills” story, you might offer a little more context.
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