Purina Beneful Lawsuit

Jeremy Bednarsh Purina

Could this seemingly harmless-looking dog food be causing the death of countless dogs?

Purina’s Beneful brand is truly one of the most popular pet food brands in the country.  Through their aggressive marketing campaigns, they’ve become one of the most recognizable animal food brands.  However, a recent lawsuit has claimed that Purina’s Beneful brand is hurting and killing pets.  Dog-owners have filed over 3,000 online complaints that claim Purina Petcare Beneful’s dry kibble variety is killing and hurting dogs.  The brand is still on store shelves in the Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana area, and has yet to be recalled.

This class-action suit concerns kibble dry food, along with various other Purina Beneful brands.  According to the lawsuit currently being held, the packaging used for these foods makes various claims about the food’s high quality.  However, in addition to the packaging on the sites, the lawsuit lists stomach and related internal bleeding, liver malfunction or failure, diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, bloat, kidney failure, weight loss and seizures as symptoms that dog-owners consistently report after feeding their pets Beneful.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Frank Lucido, who claimed in the suit that after purchasing a bag of Beneful for the first time in late December, all three of his dogs began to fall ill with stomach and liver symptoms, and that he fed them only Beneful for less than a month.  Lucido’s English bulldog, Dover, ultimately died after starting to show signs of internal bleeding in his stomach and lesions on his liver.  Lucido’s German Shepherd Nella has shown similar symptoms, and his third dog, the Labrador Remo, is currently undergoing testing after feeling unwell.  Lucido claims that these illnesses, as well as similar illnesses of other dogs that have become sick and/or died after eating Beneful, were caused by toxic substances in the food.

Overall, there have been hundreds of complaints about Purina Beneful.  There have been thousands of complaints about dogs who have suffered serious side effects, including death, after eating Purina Beneful.  The suit lists the automotive antifreeze component propylene glycol, which is toxic to dogs and cats, as a primary ingredient in Beneful’s dog food.  This isn’t the first time that Ppropylene glycol has been part of food safety cases.  Fireball Whisky, for example, was recalled in Scandinavia last October for what some claimed were dangerous levels of the chemical.