Mass Tort Lawyers Join ‘Wave’ of Pet-Food Suits

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Mass Tort Lawyers Join ‘Wave’ of Pet-Food Suits

Posted Apr 23, 2007, 02:08 pm CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Grieving pet owners have filed at least 50 class-action lawsuits in federal courts, most of them in New Jersey, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

And that doesn’t include the large number of suits seeking damages for pet-food contamination likely filed in state courts as well. The suits are “quickly building into the largest wave of animal litigation ever to sweep into the American court system,” according to the newspaper.

Some attorneys filing suits are animal rights lawyers, but others handle mass tort litigation, including suits against pharmaceutical makers.

The New Jersey actions name as a defendant Canadian pet food manufacturer Menu Foods Inc., which has a plant in Pennsauken, the newspaper says. Menu Foods did not comment to the newspaper.