Midwestern Pet Foods agrees to pay $6.375 million settlement

Impacted pet owners of the deadliest pet food aflatoxin recall on record by Midwestern Pet Foods started receiving notices by mail last week about a $6.375 million dollar settlement to resolve a class action lawsuit. For many of the owners we interviewed over several weeks, the trauma from their experiences was pronounced. Their dogs had not only died suddenly, but in most cases, with a lot of blood and a lot of pain.

When TCR interviewed Patricia Compton, who runs a dog rescue organization out of her home and had 13 dogs die between Dec. 1 and Dec. 29, 2020, she described a state of shock in an interview as she recalled the moment she found out what had been killing her dogs. Upon learning it was the food she’d been feeding them, she told TCR, at one point while driving that day, she says she pulled over at a gas station, bought a six-pack of beer, and then continued to drive as she consumed all of the beer because she was hysterical.

Dr. Ann Hohenhaus at The Animal Medical Center in New York City provided this blog post about aflatoxicosis to provide pet owners with proper medical context for the accounts TCR was reporting in our coverage of the recall, which unfortunately, was ongoing.  It’s an excellent primer and worth reading.