Whither the pet plaintiff

Thanks to Bill Childs for alerting me to the latest in pet-related litigation and the proposed class action over Menu Foods' pet food recall. The company's products have been linked to kidney failure deaths in cats and dogs. I look forward to any discovery that might result from it. The inner workings of the pet-food industry have always intrigued me.  Will we get to find out what really goes into a can of "cuts and gravy"?

On the other hand, much as I feel for the pet owners, I have to confess secretly hoping that this line of litigation doesn't go anywhere. The civil justice system has enough fodder for "reformers" to ridicule as it is. Can you imagine these cases going to court? The causation arguments alone will be enough to keep late night talk shows in fits for months.

Like obesity in Vioxx plaintiffs, kidney failure is pretty much epidemic in old cats, of which this country has many (so many, in fact, that the University of Pennsylvania vet school has a thriving feline kidney transplant program). But also, if you figure that defense lawyers will try to show that something other than the pet food caused the kidney failure, then you're really headed into Comedy Central territory.

Consider my late, beloved beagle, Wilson.

He ate Eukanuba dog food, one of the brands in the recall. He also ate, in no particular order: aluminum foil, muffin cups, corn cobs, chicken bones, meatball subs, dead rats, dog poop (his own and others), plus countless other indigestible products we only learned about after he barfed them back up. I suspect Wilson was not alone in this regard. If he had died of kidney failure, there's no way on earth anyone would ever have been able to prove definitively that it was the dog food that killed him. Unfortunately, given the quirkiness of some segments of the pet-owning world, I have no doubt that out there, somewhere, are people who would try.

(Photo of the late Wilson, courtesy of Clark Wemple, now 10.)