Did You Buy Diamond Pet Food in 2005?

Posted by Clare Bristow

dogfoodbowl

Diamond Pet Food has made available a settlement fund of $3.1 million in respect of the pet food recall of it's Diamond Brand and Country Value Brand products in December 2005 (a full list of the products covered is in the settlement agreement).

It's understood that the recalled pet foods contained moldy corn which harbored a fungus called aflatoxin. 100 dogs died after eating the contaminated dog food.

The settlement provides that settlement funds will be paid to:

consumers who purchased recalled dog food and did not return it for a refund may receive money, provided they can establish they purchased the recalled Diamond Dog Food and did not return it for a refund; and

consumers who can show that their dog was injured or that they incurred a veterinary bill as a result of their dog eating recalled Diamond Dog Food products will be entitled to payment for veterinary expenses; and

attorneys to cover their fees, costs, and expenses incurred in this lawsuit - an amount of $475,735 has been requested.

Needless to say Diamond Pet Foods denies that the settlement fund is an admission of any wrongdoing on its part.

In addition to either buying the product and not getting a refund, and/or your dog suffering injury or illness from eating the product you need to have lived and purchased the recalled food in one of 23 States listed on the recalled pet food website during 2005.

The recalled pet food web site also tells you in more detail how to qualify for compensation, the forms you need to complete, how to download a copy of the court documents and the dates for:

objecting to the settlement (26 February 2008)
the exclusion deadline (16 March 2008)
settlement fairness hearing (26 March) to consider whether to approve the settlement and request for legal fees
claim form submission deadline (April 15 2008)

The settlement agreement provides examples of what you will be required to produce in order to have a valid claim - having read the agreement I'm not sure how many people will be able to do this.

Only on second reading did I realize this article related to a pet food recall in 2005. I wonder how long it will be before any settlement funds are set up in respect of the most recent pet food recall in March 2007?

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