The End of the Story for the Pet Food Class Action

In case you were wondering what ever happened to the class action in Florida involving false advertising by pet food companies, here you go. In a nutshell, much of the evidence necessary to pursue the lawsuit--samples of the food--was destroyed by defendant Menu Foods. Menu Foods was also a defendant in the pet food recall litigation going on at the same time. The defendant asked the court to allow it to destroy the samples of food it had collected in the discovery phase of the recall litigation. The samples contained both recalled and non-recalled products. Storing the samples, the company argued, was an inconvenience. The court agreed over strenuous objections by consumers who needed that evidence for separate false advertising claims. Menu Foods promptly got rid of the evidence, fully aware of the other claims. This left the Blaszkowski class action, and others, with nothing to stand on. Blaszkowski was dismissed on March 30, 2009.