Menu Foods Continues To Understate The Number Of Victim Pets

Menu Foods, the Canadian company under fire for outsourcing to China for wheat gluten contaiminated with a plastics manufacturing substance causing kidney failure and deaths in cats and dogs, continues to understate the number of pet victims. Officially Menu Foods claims only 19 deaths, when in Oregon alone, state authorities acknowledge 38 deaths.

And Menu Foods is now the subject of a lawsuit by Chicago attorney, Jay Edelson who contends that the company is involved in both fraud and evidence destruction. By contending fraud, damage figures may be higher. Pets are considered property under the laws of 49 states, with some exceptions provided only in Oregon.

Oregon stands alone as the only state allowing some damages for emotional loss of a pet beyond the actual value of the pet itself. If pet owners from the U.S. and Canada could unite behind a class action lawsuit filed in Oregon, then they could perhaps see the greatest return for damages. However, individuals who sue in court and are able to display their loss and suffering to a jury sometimes can do even better in a lawsuit.

With no organized pattern for the lawsuits against Menu, and Menu so far only offering to pay vet costs, pet owners who lost their beloved animals would be best to figure a central courtroom strategy, where best to file their lawsuits, and whether a class action lawsuit or individual actions are the best legal remedy.