Message Board
May 2011
CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT
On 3/2/10, a lawsuit seeking class action status was filed on behalf of pet owners against Hartz, Sergeant's, and Summit VetPharm (maker of Vectra and Vectra 3D, which are sold by Banfield Pet Hospital's under the name FirstShield and FirstShield Trio).
On 8/25/10, a lawsuit seeking class action status was filed on behalf of pet owners against Central Garden and Pet - the parent company of Farnam (maker of Adams and Bio Spot flea and tick products) and Wellmark International (maker of Zodiac flea and tick products).
The lawsuits seek injunctive relief in the form of a recall of the offending products, a refund of the purchase price, for compensatory damages, punitive damages and other relief.
For additional information concerning this lawsuit, click here.
If your pet was harmed by a flea and tick product made by one of the above mentioned companies, and you would like to participate in this class action,
please contact:
Jacqueline Mottek
Positive Legal Group
415.302.5371 (cell)
***************************************************************************************
(Below is a Freedom of Information Act request that I sent to the EPA on 5/2/11)
Please send me the Aggregate Incident Summary Reports from January 1, 2010 to
December 31, 2010, for all registered pet spot-on products.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
James TerBush
Website Administrator
***************************************************************************************
I can not stress enough. Do not use this product. I purchased mine from Big Lots. It looked
very similar frontline. I purchased it. I figured the worst it could do, is not work. I had no idea,
of the torture I put my dog through for the next week or so, not thinking anything about it being caused by Bio Spot, until today, I got ready to apply it again, and just decided to check it out on the internet before I used it, still not thinking there was any danger in using it. Boy am I glad
I did. For over a week my dog kept jumping up with his legs kicking and wanted to stay on top of me, he would kick and act like something was biting him. I didn't know what it was. I gave him a bath that same day after using Bio Spot, but he still continued to act like something was hurting him. I feel so bad now that I used this product and put my dog though this, I just thank everyone for their comments on this site, and James for starting it. Thank the lord for the internet, if it had not been for that, I would have used it again. Has anyone filed a law suit against this company? Because if a company can get away with putting a product like this
on the market, there is something wrong with our justice system. They should be put out of business forever, because this is totally incompetent, and right down cruel. I just hope this company pays for the harm it's caused to my and everyone else's dog.
R. Kelly 5/8/11
***************************************************************************************
We put bio spot on our two dogs, one 14 yrs old and the other 11 mos (both shihtzus) and
the 11 month old had terrible tremors the next morning. We wiped him down with a wet towel
and he seemed better but later in the day the tremors esp in the rear legs started again. We bathed him with dog soap last night (24 hours after application) and again this morning twice. He is still twitching. We took him to the vet who said he had never heard of topical treatments causing adverse reactions and he told us that his anal glands were full. Nami is still twitching and I am worried that he has permanent neurological damage. BIO SPOT is POISON. I am so scared that this cute little puppy will be permanently damaged.
Joann and John 5/10/11
***************************************************************************************
In college kid v. big companies, small claims court key to big satisfaction
Excerpts:
Christopher Akinyemi hates feeling like a company has taken advantage of him. Like the
rest of us, he gets angry at what seems like a constant stream of broken products, ignored warranties, screwed up reservations, endless phone calls and unwanted email. But unlike most of us, the 22-year-old college student in Indiana puts his anger to good use.
He takes the culprits to small claims court.
He's filed a dozen cases in the past few years, and wins nearly all the time. In 10 of the
12 cases, he said, companies have settled and sent cold, hard cash rather than a team
of lawyers to fight him in court.
"I've stood up for the average Joe since I was 18. I put my foot down," said Akinyemi. "I have
a heart for justice in business. ... I'm on a mission to show you don't have to pay a lawyer
$225 an hour to get your voice heard."
For a trivial court fee -- usually $76 in Indiana -- Akinyemi often gets himself settlement
checks of $500 or more. He also gets something most of us rarely taste: satisfaction.
Akinyemi has lost two cases, but figures an 80 percent success rate is pretty good. What's the secret to his success? The small claims court justice system gives him something all of us want when we're trying to get satisfaction from a big company -- a person on the other end of the phone who is empowered to solve the problem.
"When I talk to their attorneys, I try to have a conversation with them. I'll say, 'You know you've done wrong. Instead of paying your attorneys $225 to drive to the courthouse, why don't you talk to me right now and settle this?' They usually want to work with me," he said.
The settlement amounts aren't enormous -- they won't pay for law school, which Akinyemi hopes to attend when he finishes his degree at Indiana Purdue University in Ft. Wayne in the fall. But they do make a point -- and they often at least pay for his time and frustration.
"My mission isn't just to get a settlement check," he said. "It's to make these companies do right by people. It's a principle."
"My message to people is that no matter what your age, you don't have to be intimidated,"
he said. "In my state, it costs just $76 to file in small claims court, and I know in some places, like California, it's even cheaper. It's worth every penny, and you get justice. Every consumer should know how to use small claims court."
It's easier than you think to file small claims court cases -- in some states, you can file them online. That means if your case settles, you never even have to go to court. Here's a good state-by-state list of resources, including how and where to file.
And here's a very simple set of advice on filing successful cases. In short: Be prepared, be polite and be reasonable. That'll get you far.
Great advice! Here's a similar article involving a recent lawsuit against Hartz:
***************************************************************************************
I applied a dose of BIO SPOT FLEA AND TICK CONTROL FOR DOGS to my 2 yr old
Shih tzu. I noticed an hour later she was in distress, growling, twitching, jumping around, dragging her bottom, couldn't walk. I called my vet and she said to bathe her in dawn dish detergent and to watch her overnight and if she is not better to call back. The next day
she was not eating, drinking or walking. I had to carry her outside to go the bathroom.
She was growling at herself and shaking and acting out. I called the vet back and they
told me to take her to an emergency hospital right away. So I took her and told the vet
what happened, he said the product is dangerous and should not be on the market. He
also said she was having neurological abnormal behavior, and her anal glands were
swollen. They had to keep her in the hospital with IV fluids and medication. She will
hopefully recover from this.
I called the company of the product and told them my dog has had a bad reaction to the product and it's dangerous to dogs and cats. I also stressed about the cost of having my
dog hospitalized. They said they would reinburse me, hopefully they will or they will have
a lawsuit coming to them. I also contacted the EPA and NPIC.
Ericka 5/12/11
***************************************************************************************
(Below is a message that was posted on HartzVictims.org on 5/9/11)
My Sweet Shih Zu Lily Died from Hartz Ultra Guard Plus
I write this with tears streaming down my face. My husband and I are sick beyond words.
Our precious, loyal, sweet companion passed away this week due to being poisoned by this awful medicine. My last visions of her was suffering for 18 hours start. This is our story…..
It was last Saturday morning and time for the heart worm medicine and a flea treatment. My husband held our 13 lbs Shih Zu while I applied the Hartz Ultra Guard Plus for 4-15 lbs dogs,
I then gave her heart worm prevention medicine. Later that evening I noticed she wasn’t
acting like herself and would shiver every few seconds. She didn’t get any better or worse over the weekend. This shiver thing was weird and she walked with her head and tail down. She just didn’t feel good. We took her in to the vet on Tuesday because she just wasn’t
getting any better. We did inform the vet that after we applied the flea medicine and gave
her the heart worm medicine is when she started acting sick. I thought maybe the combination of medicines was the problem, but he reassured me that the combination had nothing to do
with it, but he was concerned about the type of flea medicine we used. Upon evaluating Lily he did discover she had a bladder infection so it was thought that the bladder infection was making her as sick. We took her home with antibotics. Wednesday morning at 5:30 is
when the horror began. We woke up to her laying at the end of our bed, on the floor, seizing, foaming at the mouth, drenched in drool. We called the vet and he met us at his office immediate. He put her on IV to try and stop the seizing. He informed us she had got into some poison. Well, I know what the poison was now. I’m the one that put that awful poison
on my baby girl. This was Wednesday morning, three full days after we put it on her. Lily laid there for 18 hours, seizing and foaming at the mouth, the most heart wrenching sight you will ever see. My vet said there was a chance she would come out of it and we needed to wait it out. He called us at 9:50 p.m. and told us the horrible news that she had passed. We are stricken with grief. This did not need to happen. If only I had done my research. This stuff needs to be taken off the market! I called Hartz and told them the situation. They gave me a case number and address where to send my complaint, then sent me to their medical team. They told me they would pay for an autopsy and we considered it but after reading some
posts on here it sounded like they would just deny it or they would say it was the bladder infection that killed her. We really wanted to bring our Lily home to bury her on our farm.
Hartz said after the autopsy was complete they would do a “communal cremation” …
basically a bunch of animals would be burned together. If I thought it was do some good
and help this from happening to someone else, we would send her in, but I don’t think it
would. We went and pick our little girl up, my husband has her in a nice box with her bed
and toys and we plan on burying her tonight. We are heartbroken in Michigan. Please tell everyone you know not to use this stuff. I will be filing a complaint with the EPA and the Attorney General. I wish there was more I could do. I will always miss by baby girl and think this should not have happened!
***************************************************************************************
(Below is a message that was posted on HartzVictims.org on 5/15/11)
Yet another HARTZ victim
My name is Stephanie and I have a cat named Champ. He is a 1 year and 10 month old orange tabby, weighs 4.15 kg. On May 5, 2011, at 8 pm on Friday evening, my mom, Lori, gave Champ a dosage of the Hartz product she had purchased from a local walmart store, in Brantford, Ontario. The Hartz product she had given him was called Ultra Guard – One Spot Treatment for Cats and Kittens, which is a product to control flea and ticks. Immediately, Champ began to jump around, drooling, excessive running around the house. All in around
10 minutes, Champ had ingested some of the product which was placed on the back of his neck, between his shoulder blades, as shown on the package and was therefore acting out
of sorts. At this point Lori watched Champs behaviour closely at which time she noticed his mouth was wide open, looking like he was gasping for air and panting breaths. When Champ stopped jumping around, Lori noticed he was trying to lick the spot which is when he probably ingested some of the product as well as absorbing into the hair follicles. Lori then decided to bathe Champ in warm water and mild soap. He seemed to calm down slightly, but continued
to have rapid breathing as well as an unclosed mouth. We were awaken in the morning, on May 6, 2011, at 8:28 am, to the sound of Champ’s head banging off the wooden bed frame. Champ appeared to be having some type of seizure activity going on. He dug his claws into the carpet, had his head lowered and he was thrusting forward. Champ was frothing at the mouth, his eyes were flickering, his entire body was in a tremor; even his tail was twitching, which lead us to believe he was having convulsions. My dad, Mike, picked Champ up and moved him away from the bed, tried to calm him down by petting him and it seemed to have brought him to for a brief moment. Mike then got a towel and got it wet and wrapped it around Champ. My mom, Lori then held him tightly wrapped in the towel for comfort and noted his mouth was wide open and was gasping for air while continuing to tremor. We then telephoned our local veterinarian clinic, Beattie Animal Hospital Professional Corporation. The veterinarian tech that we spoke to, stated we needed to bring him in immediately. She informed my dad that it was going to be a $75.00 emergency fee charge to look at Champ along with a 24 hour hospital stay with medication. Once we arrived at the vet, Champ was diagnosed with Pyrethrin Toxicity and needed IV medication and other medical care. The Dr. stated this is caused from the hartz treatment. She also stated that they have treated several other animals with the same reaction to this product. She told my mom that if we had left Champ much longer, the undesirable might happen; meaning death. They took Champ into their care and told us they would keep us updated after he received sufficient treatment. After the first IV treatment we received a phone call from the attending physician stating that he was resting and they would continue to update us. The second call from the clinic, a tech stated an hour and a half later Champ went back into tremors so they had to repeat the IV treatment for
a second time and would give us an update later. Champ then spent 24 hours in the ICU. We received a call at 8:30am from the physician stating that Champ could be picked up at 10:30am and taken home. When we went to pick him up, the physician came out and explained the medical treatment he received, gave discharge instructions with a prescription. Since being discharged, Champ has began to bounce back some-what. He still has a slight twitch. I wouldn’t say he is the same cat as before the Hartz treatment. I now sit here, trying to explain as much information as I have. The reason I am writing you about this matter is that I could possibly have a cat who could occur long term physical or mental abnormalities because of this occurrence, only time will tell. It is now May 9, 2011 at 8:38pm and I am saddened for the trauma Champ has gone through, along with myself and family. As a result of using your Hartz product, my cat, Champ, was hospitalized. I have read and re-read your packages application instructions, precautions, first aid and storage / disposal information. No where on your packaging does it state that a Kitten or Cat can be seriously harmed, or killed by the use of your product. After Champs seizures and trip to the vet, my family and I have done some research on the internet. It appears that this is not the first time that an animal has been
harmed by using your Hartz products.
Hartz products are unsafe for any animal as proven by all these terrible stories on your website.. I hope we can make a difference so nobody else has a sad story to tell.
***************************************************************************************
From the Fields to Inner City, Pesticides Affect Children’s IQ
Excerpts:
Scientists studying the effects of prenatal exposure to pesticides on the cognitive abilities
of children have come to a troubling conclusion: Whether pregnant mothers are exposed to organophosphate pesticides in California fields or New York apartments, the chemicals appear to impair their children’s mental abilities.
Three studies undertaken independently, but published simultaneously last month, show
that prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides — sprayed on crops in the Salinas Valley and used in Harlem and the South Bronx to control cockroaches and other insects — can lower children’s IQ by an average of as much as 7 points. While this may not sound like
a lot, it is more than enough to affect a child’s reading and math skills and cause behavioral problems with potentially long-lasting impacts, according to the studies.
“This is not trivial,” said Virginia Rauh, one of the study authors, speaking from Columbia University, where she is deputy director of the university’s Center for Children’s Environmental Health and professor of population and family health. What is particularly significant, she said, is that these studies involved so many children from such different communities, yet produced consistent evidence of the pesticides’ effects on cognitive skills and short-term memory.
The study results are significant because they help show that while these children’s social circumstances — they came from low-income communities and families — can put them at
an educational disadvantage, they also appear to be starting life with a preventable physiological disadvantage.
In addition to examining the outcomes of organophosphate pesticide exposures, the
Mount Sinai research team looked at how the body responds biochemically to these alien compounds. As study co-author Stephanie Engel explained, she and her colleagues studied
a gene that is key to how the body processes organophosphate pesticides. Several versions of this gene exist, and depending on which version a person possesses, it can have “relatively large effects on the metabolism of organophosphates,” said Engel, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Public Health. The study showed that the negative effects of pesticides occurred primarily in children whose mothers metabolize these pesticides less efficiently.
Two generations after the U.S. stopped widely using the pesticides that Rachel Carson wrote about in Silent Spring, scientists are just beginning to get a distinct picture of how replacement pesticides are affecting the health of children. “We now have additional safety regulations for pesticides,” says Lanphear, ”but that doesn’t mean they’re safe.”
***************************************************************************************
EPA Aggregate Incident Summary Report for 2010
Below is an aggregate incident summary report for pet spot-on products, which includes the number and severity of incidents that were submitted to the EPA by the product manufacturers in 2010:
The Exposure Type/Severity Category Codes which are found in the report are as follows:
HD - Minor human incident
HE - Human incident-symptoms unknown or not specified
DA - Domestic animal death
DB - Major domestic animal incident
DC - Moderate domestic animal incident
DD - Minor domestic animal incident
DE - Domestic animal incident-symptoms unknown or not specified
According to the report, there were 27,216 incidents reported in 2010, which is significantly less than the number of incidents reported in 2009 (36,472), but slightly more than the number of incidents reported in 2008 (26,461), which had prompted the EPA's investigation of pet spot-on products.
At first glance, it may look like things are improving, but upon closer examination, you find
that almost all of the reduction was due to the number of incidents reported for ONE product -- Sergeant's Gold Flea & Tick Squeeze-On for Dogs (EPA Reg. No. 002517-00080), which
is also sold under the name Sentry Pro XFC (same EPA Reg. No.) and TriForce Canine Squeeze-On (EPA Reg. No. 002517-00080-083333). Those products were discontinued
(but not recalled) at some point last year (they are no longer shown on Sergeant's website), which probably explains the lower number of incidents reported by Sergeant's in 2010.
Missing from the report is a summary of incidents for Vectra 3D (aka FirstShield Trio) and Vectra for Cats and Kittens (aka FirstShield for Cats). I just asked the EPA to provide me
with a summary of incidents for those products, too.
P.S. Here is the 2010 aggregate incident summary report for Vectra products:
***************************************************************************************
(Below is email that I sent to Kimberly Nesci at the EPA on 5/18/11)
Dear Kimberly,
I am writing in regards to several pet spot-on products (PetArmor) that were recently registered by the EPA -- EPA Reg. No. 86230-1, 86230-2, 86230-3, and 86230-4.
Instead of requiring the submission of new toxicity and companion animal safety studies
to support the registration of these products, the EPA allowed the registrant to cite data
that had been submitted previously for Frontline.
As you know, the EPA's investigation of pet spot-on products found that the companion
animal safety studies did not accurately predict toxicity seen in the incident reports. As
part of its risk mitigation plan, the EPA stated that it will no longer allow the interchangeable use of inert ingredients in these formulations. Furthermore, the EPA stated that it is taking additional steps to bring data requirements, including pre-market clinical trials, in line with FDA's requirements for similar products.
Please let me know why these risk mitigation actions were not applicable for the
registration of the above mentioned products.
Sincerely,
James TerBush
Website Administrator
***************************************************************************************
(Below is email that I sent to Kimberly Nesci at the EPA on 5/18/11)
Dear Kimberly,
I was just looking at the EPA's 2010 Aggregate Incident Summary Report for Summit VetPharm's Vectra (EPA Reg. No. 83399-9) and Vectra 3D (EPA Reg. No. 83399-6) and couldn't help but notice there were no human incidents reported, no animal deaths reported, and no major animal incidents reported for these products. None. Zero.
The above products are also distributed by Banfield Pet Hospital's under the name First Shield for Cats (EPA Reg. No. 83399-9-85581) and First Shield Trio (EPA Reg. No.
83399-6-85581), but again, no human incidents were reported, no animal deaths were reported, and no major animal incidents were reported for these products.
To see if that was an anomaly, I checked the EPA's Aggregate Incident Summary Report
for every year these products have been registered, and guess what? No human incidents were ever reported, only 1 animal death was reported for Vectra and 8 animal deaths for Vectra 3D (no animal deaths were ever reported for First Shield and First Shield Trio),
and no major animal incidents were ever reported for any of these products.
I don't know about you, but I find the above statistics to be too improbable for belief. When
you consider that the above products were created by Hartz, and that until recently, Summit VetPharm and Hartz were both owned by the same parent company, it becomes even
more improbable.
Has this raised any red flags within the EPA?
Sincerely,
James TerBush
Website Administrator
***************************************************************************************
We recently tried Biospot on our 15 pound yorkie and the next day watched him itch uncontrollably and try to eat his tail where we had applied the product, down his back and behind his front quarters. My wife bathed the dog last night but he is still biting, scratching
and trying to get to his tail. We will watch him carefully and have learned a valuable lesson here, do not go cheap. The dog never even had fleas; it was just a precautionary action
before we took him to the beach.
Michael 5/24/11
Copyright © 2002-2011 BioSpotVictims.org All rights reserved.
DISCLAIMER: Below are messages that I have received from others whose dogs and cats experienced adverse reactions after using flea control products. I have no way of knowing if the information in these messages is factual, or if the products they used were the actual cause of the adverse reactions.
Search
