Settlement reached on contaminated pet food

CAMDEN, N.J. — A pet-food maker whose contaminated product may have led to the deaths of thousands of dogs and cats in North America has agreed to settle more than 100 class-action lawsuits with pet owners in the United States and Canada.

Details of the "agreement in principle" were not disclosed at the hearing in U.S. District Court in Camden. The tentative settlement followed months of negotiations between lawyers for companies that manufactured or distributed the chow and lawyers for pet owners.

"Good news, your honor," lawyer Sherrie Savett, representing pet owners, told U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman, who is handling the nationwide consolidation of pet-food lawsuits. "The parties have come to an agreement in principle on all the major terms."

The lawsuits were filed after massive recalls of dog and cat food last spring. As pets got sick and, in numerous cases, died of kidney failure, more than 120 varieties of pet food were pulled off the market.

The primary target was Menu Foods, the Canada-based manufacturer of about 100 of the tainted product lines. But other companies that manufactured or distributed the food also are defendants. Menu Foods and other makers of the contaminated pet food will pay for the settlement.

Amy Schulman, a lawyer for Menu Foods, said the planned settlement would resolve litigation in Canada and the U.S.

Schulman said she could not disclose how much the settlements would be worth, but the company did say it expects its total costs from the recall to be about $53.8 million.

Details of the settlement are to be filed in federal court in New Jersey May 1. Once a settlement agreement and claims process are approved by U.S. and Canadian courts, pet owners will be notified about how to make a claim on the settlement fund.

The pet-food scare led to criminal charges in February against two Chinese companies, a Las Vegas business and their officers in an alleged scheme to make and import tainted wheat gluten, an ingredient in many pet foods.

Material from Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal is included in this report.