Child dies from rat bought from Petco

[fjmeat]

Sad story. Never heard of Rat-Bite Fever.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A San Diego family is suing Petco after the death of their 10-year-old son from a bacterial infection they say he contracted from his pet rat.

Attorney John Gomez told The Associated Press on Tuesday that his firm filed the lawsuit Monday in San Diego County seeking an unspecified amount for the suffering endured by the Pankey family, whose son, Aidan, died June 12, 2013, hours after he was rushed to the hospital with severe stomach pains.

The San Diego County medical examiner's office ruled that the cause of death was streptobacillus moniliformis infection, commonly known as rat-bite fever, after exposure to an infected rat.

The retailer in a statement expressed its condolences.

"We are deeply saddened by the Pankey family's tragic loss," Petco said in a statement. "The health and safety of people and pets is always a top priority, and we take the family's concerns very seriously."

The boy's grandmother purchased the male rat, which Aidan named Alex, because her only grandson wanted a mate for his female rat, Gomez said. The boy took the rat home May 27, 2013, and woke up the night of June 11 in severe pain with a fever and stomach problems. He was pale, lethargic and could barely walk, according to the lawsuit. He died at 1:09 a.m. the next day.

"He was a bright, energetic, friendly, happy kid who actually had a prior rat, who was a female, and he had this idea in his young head of having his female rat get married," Gomez said.

The lawsuit was not filed until now because attorneys were awaiting the lab results from the federal Centers for Disease Control, which tested the rat to confirm it was infected, Gomez said. The agency could not immediately confirm the results Tuesday.

Gomez said the Pankey family was not giving interviews, but they are devastated by the death of their only son and want to raise awareness among parents.

"It's a means to ensure this doesn't happen again," Gomez said of the lawsuit. "Apparently there was some breakdown in procedures. They want tighter controls."

According to the lawsuit, the rat appeared safe. But the lawsuit says Petco should have known about the rodent's health and did not adequately test for the disease. It also says that negligence led to the boy's death, which has caused his parents, Andrew Pankey and Vanessa Sauer, emotional and economic hardship, and that the retailer did not post adequate warnings about the potential risks, especially for children.

Petco Animal Supplies Inc. said it is "in the process of investigating these claims and will respond appropriately when we have more information."

According to the CDC, people can contract rat-bite fever from bites or scratches from infected rodents, such as rats, mice and gerbils, or even just by handling an animal with the disease without a bite or scratch. It can also be contracted by consuming food or drink contaminated with the bacteria. It is not spread from person to person.

Antibiotics, such as penicillin, are highly effective at treating rat-bite fever, and it is rarely fatal, according to the CDC.

The CDC says those at higher risk of contracting the illness are people with pet rats or who work with rats in laboratories or pet stores, or live in rat-infested buildings. The agency recommends that people who handle rats or clean their cages wear protective gloves, wash their hands regularly and avoid touching their mouths with their hands after being in contact with rodents.

Petco also mentions preventative measures for rat-bite fever in information it posts online and provides in stores. The company warns that all rats are potential carriers and that pregnant women, children under the age of five and people with weakened immune systems should contact their doctor before buying a rat and "should consider not having a rat as a pet."

Only about 200 cases of rat-bite fever had been documented in the U.S. as of 2004, according to the Center for Food Security and Public Health at Iowa State University. Scientists believe the disease may be underdiagnosed because it is hard to detect and responds to commonly used antibiotics. But the number of cases, they say, may be increasing, especially among children, with the growing popularity of rats as pets.

 

[fjmeat]

Link to above story with photo of rat & boy:

http://www.chron.com/news/science/article/Child-dies-from-infected-rat-family-sues-Petco-5266967.php

 

[NetWareHead]

Thats what you get for having a pet that is really vermin. Too bad for the kid and family...

 

[OCGuy]

I'm sorry but I have to side with Petco on this one. At some point you have to take responsibility for how you raise your children, and having them handle a creature that was responsible for ~ 200,000,000 deaths at one point is not smart.

Just sad all around.

 

[BurnItDwn]

This is truly tragic. Petco should be criminally liable due to their negligence as well as financially IMO. If you are going to sell rats, you had damn well better make sure they are not infected with diseases IMO.

 

[blackdogdeek]

That is sad.

 

[surfsatwerk]

Shit happens, it's tragic but hardly anyone's fault.

 

[CountZero]

I'm sorry but I have to side with Petco on this one. At some point you have to take responsibility for how you raise your children, and having them handle a creature that was responsible for ~ 200,000,000 deaths at one point is not smart.

Just sad all around.

That seems pretty dumb. 500,000 households have pet rats and no plague outbreak.

Now whether or not Petco can be held responsible is a whole other question. Is this a fluke they couldn't know about or something that could only happen if Petco was negligent in their procuring and keeping of rats? I don't know, the article is useless for that.

 

[JTsyo]

Its' an actual rat and not a mouse? Think I caught something like this in Skyrim.

 

[surfsatwerk]

That seems pretty dumb. 500,000 households have pet rats and no plague outbreak.

Now whether or not Petco can be held responsible is a whole other question. Is this a fluke they couldn't know about or something that could only happen if Petco was negligent in their procuring and keeping of rats? I don't know, the article is useless for that.

Labs source rodents from companies that produce them in extremely controlled environment to ensure they are disease free. Expecting pet stores to do that would be insane.

 

[OCGuy]

Now whether or not Petco can be held responsible is a whole other question. Is this a fluke they couldn't know about or something that could only happen if Petco was negligent in their procuring and keeping of rats? I don't know, the article is useless for that.

This is all I need:

Petco also mentions preventative measures for rat-bite fever in information it posts online and provides in stores. The company warns that all rats are potential carriers and that pregnant women, children under the age of five and people with weakened immune systems should contact their doctor before buying a rat and "should consider not having a rat as a pet."


"The CDC says those at higher risk of contracting the illness are people with pet rats or who work with rats in laboratories or pet stores, or live in rat-infested buildings. The agency recommends that people who handle rats or clean their cages wear protective gloves, wash their hands regularly and avoid touching their mouths with their hands after being in contact with rodents."

 

[Nintendesert]

Disgusting vermin that was responsible for the Black Death make great pets! People are so out of touch with nature and reality it's scary.

 

[Exophase]

Pet rats aren't going to be infected with wild rat diseases unless they've been exposed to wild rats. I don't know how this rat got infected, but something went wrong here.

There are two other signs of negligence on the pet store's part. Pet rats rarely bite unless they've been abused or poorly cared for (or your feeding habits make them think they're getting food). It makes me wonder if this rat was spending time outside or something. Also, I don't know if the same pet store sold him his first rat, but they should have never done so without first explaining that rats are social creatures and should be kept in same sex pairs (or more), or with neutered/spayed opposite sex. The female rat should have been spayed to begin with because that greatly decreases the chances of mammary tumors later in the rat's life, so will increase its lifespan on average.

The parents were insane to let him later get a male rat for the purpose of mating. Rat litters tend to be around 6-8 large, a little bit of research would show this, and you have to separate them pretty quickly (~6 weeks) to prevent them from mating themselves. This is too much responsibility for a 10 year old.

Domesticated rats are great pets, they're friendly and intelligent, but they need a lot of care (and you need to let them out to play at least an hour a day) and they have a lot of health issues and don't live too long. A lot of people treat rodents as easier pets than cats, maybe because they see them more as throw-away. This isn't a very good attitude.

Sadly, cases like this are going to increase the stigma against pet rats :/ Neglectful pet stores and backyard breeders are not helping. There are rat rescues to try to deal with the problem of bad sellers and people buying rats without any proper ability or desire to care for them. They at least will give the rats proper medical care and screen potential owners to make sure they know what they're doing. But clearly cases like this are very rare, and rats are much more common pets than some realize. I'm sure there are freak cases where people die from something they got from their pet dog or cat too.

 

[NetWareHead]

There are two other signs of negligence on the pet store's part. Pet rats rarely bite unless they've been abused or poorly cared for (or your feeding habits make them think they're getting food).

This is an animal we are talking about here. With unpredictable tendencies. Whether it was diseased or not, that aside, it is outlandish to fault Petco because the rat bit the boy in the first place. Animals bite things include their handlers, its an animal fact of life and not Petco's responsibility.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Horrible story... I hate to hear of anyone losing a child for any reason. :'(

I have a very close friend who went through this with his only child about a year and a half ago. Nothing can prepare you for that pain and it is something they will have to live with for the rest of their lives. I feel for the friends and family of that boy.

 

[Exophase]

This is an animal we are talking about here. With unpredictable tendencies. Whether it was diseased or not, that aside, it is outlandish to fault Petco because the rat bit the boy in the first place. Animals bite things include their handlers, its an animal fact of life and not Petco's responsibility.

I don't think Petco should be accountable for a rat bite alone without any further evidence of poor handling on Petco's part, it's true that some rats are just naturally ill tempered although it's uncommon. But it's enough to raise a red flag that they should be investigated for, and if it's found that for instance they took the rat in from an outside source they should be held accountable for that. I also think that if they notice the rat is mean (it's even more unusual that a rat will just start biting without a history of doing so) they should make that clear to the buyer. Unfortunately, I don't expect them to have a lot of data for tracking a pet that costs at most $10, nor do I expect them to have a lot of integrity in how they sell them.

At any rate, we're all animals and we could all do weird things, but some behavior is at least pretty unusual. If a child suddenly bites someone else, that's unusual. I wouldn't rule out a child randomly biting someone to be indicative of poor treatment but I'd be suspicious.

I think the circumstances in which the rat bit the kid should also be carefully examined. There's a picture of the child showering with one of the rats on his head, looking drenched. Most rats freak out when being cleaned, being subjected to a shower like this would be very stressful. So who knows if he was putting the rat under duress when he got bit. I'm sure his heart was in the right place but he doesn't seem like a very good rat owner, and his parents should have done their research to make sure he was taking care of the rats properly which he definitely was not.

 

[KaOTiK]

This is horrible for the family but I have a question and forgive me if it was answered in the article but I couldn't read most of it atm.

How do they know the rat had the disease when it was purchased from Petco and didn't pick it up after it was purchased? There was a couple of months from when it was purchased till the boy dying. Does the disease have a certain incubation period before it shows signs?

 

[Vdubchaos]

Only in America people buy rats.

Seriously, at what point in the history did "owning a rat" became ok or rats became pets?

Unreal.....but more power to Petco

Sucks for this family though....not cool

 

[Gooberlx2]

That's really too bad. I believe rats sold in pet stores are treated with antibiotics as SOP. I'd definitely be curious as to where the rat picked up the infection.

 

[Exophase]

Only in America people buy rats.

Seriously, at what point in the history did "owning a rat" became ok or rats became pets?

Unreal.....but more power to Petco

Sucks for this family though....not cool

Having rats as pets started in Europe a couple hundred years ago, it's not an American thing. I don't know why people think having rats for pets isn't okay or poses big risks. You should educate yourself on the subject a little more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fancy_rat

It sucks that this kid died from a rat bite, but he could have just as well died from of bacterial infection from a cat bite, this one could have easily done him in: http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...47357e-58db-11e2-beee-6e38f5215402_story.html

It's possible that the rat did pick up the infection from an insect after being purchased. The rat should be examined for bites.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Only in America people buy rats.

Yeah, rats have been owned as pets around the world for ages, and there exist plenty of international ownership societies, but of course only in America....

 

[KeithP]

This is truly tragic. Petco should be criminally liable due to their negligence as well as financially IMO. If you are going to sell rats, you had damn well better make sure they are not infected with diseases IMO.

From the information given I think the parents are more negligent than Petco. If your child is going to have a pet it is the parents responsibility to understand the potential risks with owning that pet.

If they had been familiar with the disease would they have let their child have a rat? Or, at the very least, they would have made it clear to the child if he was ever bitten to immediately tell them. Had that been done, the child would probably still be alive.

What we don't know from the information in this article is if Petco had adequate safety procedures in place and if they were followed. If either of those things aren't true, then yes, Petco should be held liable. However, if they are both true, and this is some sort of fluke, then they should be cleared.

By the way, I noticed nothing in the article about checking the boy's other rat. How do they know that the other rat hadn't been infected and it was the source of the problem?

-KeithP

 

[Kaido]

Wow that's so sad I know plenty of people with rats growing up. From an outside perspective, it sounds funny to say "I own a pet rat", but it's exactly the same as having a hamster or a gerbil or a pet mouse. I've never even heard of rat-bite fever; the article said "Only about 200 cases of rat-bite fever had been documented in the U.S." - not that's not 200 a year, but 200 EVER.

What a crappy situation, my heart goes out to the parents.

 

[surfsatwerk]

Disgusting vermin that was responsible for the Black Death make great pets! People are so out of touch with nature and reality it's scary.

Pet fleas?

 

[Pulsar]

There are literally hundreds of rodent species that are kept as pets, from squirrels to chinchillas to hampsters.

Some people think spiders are cute. Others love snakes and lizards. Others think rodents are adorable. All are kept as pets, and to be frank, those questioning why someone would keep a rat as a pet is ignorant and uninformed.

I feel horrible for this family. However, unless PETCO can be found to have abused that animal to provoke it's bite or unless they can find a litter of rats that test positive this is merely an isolated incident. One sale that went bad against hundreds of thousands of sales that didn't.

I feel horrible for the family. I would destroyed if I had to face a similar loss.