Champion Petfoods Class Action Survives Dismissal

A major pet meal maker is unable to escape the Champion Petfoods toxicity class action lawsuit alleging the products contain dangerous levels of heavy metals and other chemicals.

Lead plaintiffs, Afshin Zarinebaf and Zachary Chernik, allege in their class action lawsuit that Champion Petfoods USA Inc. falsely advertised their expensive pet chow to consumers. The pet food is sold under the Acana and Orijen brands in the United States.

The Champion Petfoods toxicity class action lawsuit alleges that the brand’s dog food contained excess amounts of heavy metals and other toxins when compared to other pet food brands and that the company failed to notify consumers.

The Champion Petfoods toxicity class action lawsuit was originally filed in Illinois in October of 2018. The plaintiffs lodged allegations of fraud and fraudulent omission, along with violations of Illinois consumer protection law.

Champion attempted to dodge the class action lawsuit, arguing that the levels of heavy metals in the dog foods did not exceed levels that required them to include information on the products’ labels. Champion pointed out that the plaintiffs had not specified acceptable levels of heavy metals in pet food.

In a recent court order, U.S. District Court Judge Virginia M. Kendall was unmoved by Champion’s argument.

“Plaintiffs have stated a plausible claim that they relied on Defendants’ statements marketing their dog food as natural and high quality, but would not have purchased the dog food if they had known it contained heavy metals,” notes the order. “That theory does not require Plaintiffs to plead that the dog food contained enough heavy metals to be unsafe or dangerous.”

Although Judge Kendall didn’t allow Champion to escape the dog food class action completely, several claims alleging the presence of toxic materials, barbiturate pentobarbital, in the product were cleaved from the Champion Petfoods toxicity class action lawsuit. While Champion had allegedly been notified by one of its suppliers that the beef tallow provided for the dog food contained pentobarbital, the court found that the plaintiffs had failed to establish that they had purchased dog food contaminated with that ingredient.

“As defendants point out, then, there is an important allegation missing from the complaint — that plaintiffs purchased dog food containing pentobarbital,” noted Judge Kendall dismissing the related claims. “Without that allegation, plaintiffs claims about defendants’ dog food containing pentobarbital are merely speculative and cannot give rise to a plausible claim.”

The Champion Petfood toxicity class action lawsuit was also trimmed of its fraudulent omission claim, with the judge determining that there was not enough of a relationship between the dog food maker and the plaintiffs to support the allegation that Champion had a duty to notify consumers of the potential for heavy metals in its products.

The plaintiffs are represented by Rebecca A. Peterson and Robert K. Shelquist of Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP, Kyle A. Shamberg of Lite DePalma Greenberg LLC, Steven M. McKany and Kevin A. Seely of Robbins Arroyo LLP, Katrina Carroll of Carlson Lynch LLP and Daniel E. Gustafson and Raina C. Borrelli of Gustafson Gluek PLLC.

The Champion Petfoods Toxicity Class Action Lawsuit is Zarinebaf, et al. v. Champion Petfoods USA Inc., et al., Case No. 1:18-cv-06951, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

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