Paw Prints the Magazine

Pet-Food-Poisoning Perpetrators Receive Probation

Finally!!!

According to DVM NewsMagazine, on February 4th a judge sentenced two owners of a pet-food company that had been implicated in the 2007 pet food recall to three years’ probation and levied fines of $25,000 on the company and $5,000 for each of the owners.

Sally Qing Miller and her husband, Stephen S. Miller, of Las Vegas, were indicted, along with their company, Chemnutra Inc., in 2008 for their role in the 2007 pet food recall.

In addition to probation, Chemnutra might have been handed up to $400,000 in fines, but the court ruled that a $24 million settlement by the company in a related lawsuit in New Jersey was punishment enough.

Is it enough? That recalled food is estimated to have killed about 4,000 pets and the Millers actually pled guilty; admitting that they knew melamine was substituted for protein in the pet food and that the labeling was false and misleading.

I can only wonder whether or not this “punishment” will deter others in the future. We’ll see.

Tags: Chemnutra, melamine, pet food, recall, Sally Quing Miller, Stephen S. Miller