Wellness Dog Food Contains Undisclosed Arsenic, Class Action Claims

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

A group of California plaintiffs claim certain varieties of Wellness dog food are contaminated with lead and arsenic.

Plaintiffs Daniel Zeiger, Amy Freeborn, and dog-sitting business Danz Doggie Daytrips say the makers of Wellness dog food have failed to alert consumers to their products’ unusually high content of lead and arsenic.

By doing so, the plaintiffs claim, defendants WellPet and its parent company Berwind Corporation have endangered consumers’ pets and failed to deliver the product that purchasers pay for.

According to the plaintiffs, WellPet LLC and Berwind make and market the Wellness brand line of dog food. The plaintiffs take issue with two products in particular: Wellness CORE Adult Dry Ocean Whitefish Herring Meal & Salmon Meal and Wellness Complete Health Adult Dry Whitefish and Sweet Potato.

Arsenic and lead are both toxic, the plaintiffs point out. Arsenic is a known carcinogen and can also contribute to heart disease and diabetes, the lawsuit states. Lead, also a carcinogen, is a cumulative toxin, meaning it builds up in the body during continuous exposure. Lead poisoning is associated with brain damage, kidney damage, and death, among other problems.

The plaintiffs say independent laboratory testing of these varieties of Wellness dog food revealed they contain up to 1,500 parts per billion of arsenic and up to 221 parts per billion of lead. For comparison, the plaintiffs point out that the FDA limits arsenic content in bottled water to 10 parts per billion and lead content to 5 parts per billion.

But despite these “alarming” levels of lead and arsenic in Wellness dog food, the plaintiffs say, defendants advertise these foods as being high in nutrition and beneficial for dogs’ health.

Language quoted from the defendants’ Wellness dog food website promises that “[a]t Wellness, your pet’s health is at the core of all we do. That’s why we have developed an extensive quality assurance program, guaranteeing that all of our products are safe, pure and balanced.”

The plaintiffs say that throughout the website and on Wellness dog food product labels, the defendants repeat over and over these false and misleading assurances. At the same time, they allegedly fail to alert dog owners to the presence of lead and arsenic in Wellness products.

The plaintiffs seek to represent a Class consisting of all U.S. citizens who purchased the allegedly contaminated Wellness dog food from July 1, 2013 through the present.

They are asking for a court order barring WellPet and Berwind from selling the allegedly contaminated Wellness dog food until the excess of lead and arsenic can be removed. They also seek to require the defendants to stop marketing the allegedly contaminated dog food as safe for consumption and to conduct a corrective advertising campaign.

Plaintiffs are also asking for awards of damages, restitution and disgorgement, court costs and attorneys’ fees.

The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Brian J. Robbins, Kevin A. Seely, Ashley R. Rifkin, and Steven M. McKany of Robbins Arroyo LLP, Robert K. Shelquist and Rebecca A. Peterson of Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP, and Daniel E. Gustafson and Karla M. Gluek of Gustafson Gluek PLLC.

The Wellnes Dog Food Contamination Class Action Lawsuit is Daniel Zeiger, et al. v. WellPet LLC and Berwind Corp., Case No. 3:17-cv-04056, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.