Kirkland, Diamond pay paltry $2M to settle Salmonella dog food lawsuit

A class action lawsuit filed by pet parents whose pets were sickened by Salmonella tainted pet food, manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods for Costco’s private label brand Kirkland Signature pet food, came to a close today.

Diamond Pet Foods Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp. on Tuesday agreed to pay $2 million to settle a proposed class action over large recalls in 2012 of dog food linked to a Salmonella Infantis outbreak that sickened an untold number of pets and at least 22 people. The CDC estimated that for every case of Salmonella reported, 29.3 go undetected. Using that multiplier, at least 644 people may have been sickened by the contaminated pet food.

The class action, brought by Barbara Marciano in May 2012, alleged one of her dogs died after eating pet food purchased at a Westbury, N.Y., Costco and manufactured at Diamond’s plant in Gaston, S.C., where the outbreak began. Eventually, Diamond pulled three brands of dog food off shelves in April 2012, but not before hundreds, perhaps thousands of pets became ill.

To find out more about the story behind the lawsuit read my article Diamond Pet Foods Hit with Class Action Lawsuit over Salmonella Tainted Pet Food written in June, 2012