Should Beneful dog food lawsuit alarm cat owners?

Just read about it. Beneful is a Purina company...my cat is fed ONE dry, though he doesn't seem to care for it much recently. Should I be concerned? The suit says Beneful is actually killing dogs.Purina denies it of course but seems like a pretty drastic thing to undertake unless you as the plaintiffs seem sure.

i would not feed it until i know for sure it is safe

My cats have been fed purina for years. Purina missed the 2007 recalls that hit everyone else. My cats all seem healthy.

That said, my dog died from acute kidney failure a year ago but he was on Diamond dog food. His was infection related, how he caught the infection is unknown.

Is this a problem with a certain batch? Is only dog food affected? Have the dogs that died been tested by necropsy to determine cause of death?

Leptospirosis causes kidney and liver failure very rapidly. Environmental conditions may increase the risk. Severe bloodstream infection can cause kidney failure, as can a urinary infection which moves into the kidneys. Toxic plants, rat poison etc.... an outdoor dog is exposed to a variety of risks.

Shepherd bred dogs are at the highest risk for leptospirosis due to genetic and immune factors. Leptospirosis does not affect cats as they are immune.

I might switch their foods just in case. I'm not sure what to switch them to, as they tend to get urinary crystals on other foods.

Have you looked at the details of the suit? Is it a class action suit or is it only one person? Sometimes a person's animal becomes ill and perhaps dies and they blame the food. People who feed Beneful usually don't take their animals to the veterinarian and will often buy treats from the dollar store, without knowing where they came from or what's in it. If its one person suing, I'd take it with a grain of salt.

it a class action suit

if you google beneful you will find more info about it

Beneful IS a terrible food. Added sugar, tons of artificial coloring, propylene glycol, etc. They hype it up as healthy but it's one of the worst dog foods on the market. Whereas the Purina ONE line is actually pretty decent. But, of course, we don't know what's causing the problems, whether it's one of the low-quality additives or if Purina is having a quality problem with their vitamin/mineral mix :/. Hard to say. If your cats are OK with switching and it would make you feel better, go ahead. If they tend to have troublew ith switching, I'd say keep feeding it but watch your cats for signs of trouble, and keep informed as to the details of the lawsuit, to see what ingredients might be the problem.

Yes, my cat is very hard to switch. I might switch to mostly canned til more comes out. Irony being the ONE being the only dry he seem(Ed) to like though recently he hasn't seemed to enjoy it as much. As I've not heard bad things about the Beyond wet I might switch to that.

I read up on the details of the lawsuit, and it sounds like the allegation is that the damage is caused by propylene glycol. Which isn't allowed in cat food because it's been proven to be toxic to cats. It seems it may be bad for some dogs as well. So I wouldn't worry about any other Purina foods, as long as they don't contain propylene glycol.

I just read that Miralax has propylene glycol. Wow. I feel badly for those that have to use it for their cats.


Scratch the above. Polyethylene glycol is the ingredient in Miralax. Sorry for my confusion.

I just looked that ingredent up. It is the main liquid in e cigarettes among other things. Looks like nasty stuff.