What is the Hill s Science Diet scandal
Pet food maker faces mounting legal woes over dog deaths
Hill's Pet Nutrition "dragged its feet in issuing a recall" for its canned dog food with potentially toxic levels of vitamin D, leading to the deaths and illnesses of numerous dogs, according to one of multiple lawsuits recently filed against the company.
Hill's manufactured and sold the now-recalled Specialty Dog Food to "tens of thousands of consumers," according to a lawsuit filed early this month in New York. It cited the company's U.S. recall of 675,000 cases -- or 13.5 million cans -- in presenting its case as a class action, filed on behalf of a group of people.
"We believe that hundreds, if not thousands, of pets have died or become seriously ill as a result of eating Hill's foods with toxic levels of vitamin D," emailed Nyran Rose Rasche, a Chicago-based attorney with Cafferty Clobes Meriwether & Sprengel, which filed the class action.
The suit is among a handful filed since Hill's late-January recall, which soon found the company awash in complaints from grief-stricken dog owners, many of whom took to social media to relay stories of their pet's demise.
"We have received an outpouring of distressing calls and emails from dog owners whose dogs died after eating the recalled products," emailed Kathryn Schubert, an attorney with Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe in San Francisco, which has filed two class actions. "Their stories are heartbreaking."
The company's recall of its Specialty Dog Foods canned food followed a slew of earlier recalls for dry dog having elevated levels of vitamin D that began in late December. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration told CBS MoneyWatch in early February that nine companies that have issued recalls for dry food share a common contract manufacturer, and it noted that one brand had cited a "formulation error." The FDA hasn't identified that source, but several companies said the recalled dry food was produced by Sunshine Mills, which issued its own recall in late November. Sunshine Mills hasn't immediately responded to a CBS MoneyWatch request for comment.
The FDA's investigations of these two incidents -- Hill's canned-food recall and nine others involving dry food with excessive vitamin D -- "revealed no connection between the firms' sources of vitamin D," the agency emailed Wednesday.
"Heart broken" over the issue
In its recall, Hill's, which is owned by global consumer products company Colgate-Palmolive, said it had "identified and isolated the supplier error" that involved a specific vitamin mix. It also described itself as "heart broken" over the issue in a message to pet ownerspostedon its website. "We are not aware of any link to any earlier product recall," a Hill's spokesperson emailed CBS MoneyWatch earlier this month.
Attorneys representing deceased dog owners presented a different view in their legal filings. "In December 2018 several other brands of dog food were recalled due to toxic levels of vitamin D found in those products, and dogs eating Hill's Specialty Dog Foods began dying of vitamin D toxicity well before that," said the New York suit.
"The lethal nature of Hill's Specialty Dog Foods has been compounded by Hill's excessive and unwarranted delay in warning consumers and regulatory agencies of the dangers posed by these products and caused untold numbers of pet owners significant emotional distress and financial loss," noted the courtfiling, which detailed the cases of three bereaved dog owners.
"As early as February of 2018, dog owners began to complain that Hill's Specialty Dog Foods were causing their pets to display symptoms consistent with vitamin D poisoning, such as 'daily diarrhea, excessive thirst and constant food begging,'" according to the suit.
However, Hill's disputes the notion that it delayed warning consumers. A spokesperson emailed CBS MoneyWatch that the company monitors consumer complaints and "saw no trends beginning in February 2018 that would alert us to an issue that any product contained excess vitamin D."
The FDA has received "a number of reports" since Hill's recall and is in the process of verifying the complaints. "It would be premature to release a number until the cases have been vetted to ensure they are all related to recalled product and are indeed cases of vitamin D toxicity," an agency spokesperson emailed Wednesday.
Additional lawsuits
Other suits filed against Hill's this month include a complaint on behalf of a Florida couple who allege their rescue dog, a dachshund named Stella, was poisoned by the high levels of vitamin D in Hill's food and was subsequently euthanized on Jan. 26, just days days before Hill's issued its recall.
Law firm Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe also said it filed a class action in San Francisco this month against Hill's for selling dog food containing excessive and dangerous amounts of vitamin D.
Hill's recall extends beyond the U.S. Its recallposted by the FDA states that "impacted products outside the United States will be subject to separate notices on the country-specific website." It advised consumers outside the U.S. to check their own country's Hill's website for more information.
Using information from Hill's websites around the world, eFoodAlert posted a list of recalled products and batch codes, sorted by country, of which at least 26 are outside the U.S.
According to Food Safety News, recalled products were sold in Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K.
Hill's confirmed some of the recalled product was shipped overseas, noting that the exported cans represented about 20 percent of the total cans affected and that a majority of recalled cans were recovered before reaching consumers.
Kate GibsonKate Gibson is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch in New York.
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Hills settles class action lawsuit over vitamin D recall
NEW YORK A Kansas federal judge has approved an initial $12.5 million settlement involving Hills Pet Nutrition and a class action lawsuit representing 71 people. The settlement would resolve a lengthy class action lawsuit claiming damages related to the companys widespread dog food recall in January 2019.
The recall involved 54 lots, approximately 675,000 cases of canned dog food, that contained potentially toxic levels of vitamin D. Multiple class action lawsuits were filed against the company by affected pet owners in February 2019.
Additionally, $4 million was awarded in attorney fees. US District Judge Julie A. Robinson, who approved the settlement, said more than 3,000 hours were spent litigating the case. The settlement was granted preliminary approval in February 2021 and allows class members to make claims for reimbursement both for purchasing the products and treatment of injuries to their pets. Any leftover funds from the settlement will go to Unleashed Pet Rescue.
Multiple lawsuits against Hills Pet Nutrition related to elevated vitamin D claims were consolidated in July 2019, after the US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation found there were common factual issues among the suits and that consolidating would streamline the process.
The suits each claim that varieties of dog food sold by Hill's Pet Nutrition contained dangerous levels of vitamin D, with some plaintiffs alleging the food led to their pets' deaths. According to a suit filed in New York, Hill's recalled some of its specialty pet food products in January 2019 but should have instituted a recall much earlier.
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Poisoned Pets | Pet Food Safety News
No one knew how deadly a vitamin could be before the recall of Hills Science Diet and Prescription Diet dog food was until dogs started getting sick. And some dogs were dying. No one could comprehend how something as innocent as a vitamin could be so deadly.
It started as most recalls do with a single complaint. When the FDA got the report, they notified Hills Pet Nutrition that something was wrong: a dog fed their food was exhibiting signs of elevated vitamin D. Hills later confirmed elevated levels of vitamin D due to a supplier error and on Jan. 31 the company recalled 25 varieties of Hills canned dog food.
MINIMIZING ALARM
The recall was crafted so as not to create undue alarm, emphasizing the recall is voluntary, not mandatory. Publicly Hills officials characterize the problem as a possibility, that the food has only the potential to have elevated levels of vitamin D in it. Assuring consumers in boldface type that, in most cases, complete recovery is expected after discontinuation of feeding, never mentioning the cause for alarm: Vitamin D toxicosis. Privately, Hills puts a name to their fear: Dietary-induced hypercalcemia and hypervitaminosis D toxicity.
MISDIRECTED BLAME
As so many other pet food companies before them have done, Hills laid the blame for their failures and the excess levels of vitamin D in their Science Diet and Prescription Diet formulas on their supplier. Forgetting that it was the responsibility of Hills to assure the safety and the quality of their pet food. While Hills refuses to name the supplier, many wonder if it was the same supplier who provided Sunshine Mills with the dangerous vitamin premix that prompted the recall of multiple brands of dog food for excess levels of vitamin D.
BENEATH THE VENEER
Dig just below the veneer of Hills calculated calm, and you hear the stories, read the reports about dogs that are sick and dying after being fed the recalled food. Pet parents are grief-stricken. Veterinarians feel angry and betrayed. Dig further, and youll find a document written by Hills, quietly sent to veterinarians on the diagnosis and treatment of vitamin D toxicosis. In an attempt to repair that damage, privately Hills has made an offer to reimburse veterinarians for the cost of testing a patient for conditions related to vitamin D hypervitaminosis.
THE $10 COUPON
One of those grief-stricken pet parents contacted me and told me that Hills offered her $10 in coupons after her dog died from eating the recalled dog food. Thats more than most people were offered, she said. Most were offered only $5 in coupons whether their dog was dead or alive.
I didnt believe it.
That was until I was offered $10 in coupons by Hills for my ailing dog Sadie, maybe $20, she said politely.
Sadie isnt a real dog, just one I made up.
I called Hills to find out if what that woman said was true. I sighed when I told the Hills consumer representative that I had thrown the cans away. But she kindly took my information, and asked for permission to speak to my vet and gave me a promise to send me a packet of information. While she put me on hold, instead of music, I heard ads about Hills pet food.
Then, the call was over.
BROKEN TRUST
But, for many consumers, the heartbreak, the fear, and anxiety arent over. Their vets are struggling with the aftermath of vitamin D toxicosis in their patients. They have to face angry clients who trusted their advice their recommendation to buy Hills Science Diet or Hills Prescription Diet dog food formulas. Formulas designed to treat health problems, not create them. How do those veterinarians tell their clients that the dog food they prescribed more than likely led to the illness and death of their dog?
This drama is being repeated in thousands of veterinary clinics and animal hospitals across America. But the problem isnt just limited to the US, the implicated formulas are being recalled all over the world.
It was only a matter of time that a legal complaint would be made. Only last week, three class action complaints were filed in the US. They are as follows.
BONE v. HILLS
Plaintiffs in Florida, North Carolina, and New York are leading a suit filed Feb. 11 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Kelly Bone, Christina Sawyer, and Janine Buckley say that Hills specialty dog foods contained toxic and often fatal levels of vitamin D and that the company knew about it months before its recall on Jan. 31. The suit claims that dogs owned by each of them died as a result of being fed tainted Hills products.
Not only has Hills sold contaminated food, but it has dragged its feet in issuing a recall and including all contaminated food within the scope of the recall, the lawsuit says.
The Chicago-based firm Cafferty, Clobes, Meriwether & Sprengel LLP represents the plaintiffs.
NAVARETTE v. HILLS
John Navarrete of California is suing Hills on behalf of himself and other prospective plaintiffs in a suit filed Feb. 12 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Navarette claims that his German Shepherd, Goliath, became ill after eating cans of Hills Prescription Diet that later were recalled. In December, Goliath was taken to an emergency veterinary hospital and referred to the University of California, Davis, veterinary medical teaching hospital where he recovered after treatment and a recommended change in diet. As a result, the lawsuit says, Navarrete incurred substantial veterinary bills.
The San Francisco-based firm Schubert, Jonckheer & Kolbe is handling the case.
RUSSELL v. HILLS
Michael and Jodi Russell of Florida are lead plaintiffs in a suit filed Feb. 11 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. The lawsuit alleges that Hills dog food deemed defective due to excess vitamin D poisoned Russells dog Stella, who was euthanized on Jan. 26.
The lawsuit reads that Mr. Russell spoke with the family vet on Feb. 8, 2019, and was advised that, in the veterinarians opinion, ingestion of the product was most likely the cause of Stellas kidney failure. The veterinarian pointed out that the blood work performed before Stella ingested the product showed normal renal function, but after ingesting the product over many days Stella went into renal failure.
The lawsuit is being handled by two law firms: Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Rafferty & Proctor in Florida and Reese LLP in New York.
WHAT TO DO
Consumers wishing to find out the level of vitamin D in their Hills dog food may do so by having it analyzed at Heartland Assays. Consumers should order the Vitamin D2/D3 and Vitamin D4 by HPLC test to find out that important information.
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