These are the greedy corporate bastards
that murdered a member of my family with RAT POISON and
God only knows what else.....

We got Majik when she was a puppy. My wife and I had both raised many dogs in our lifetime but this one was special. Not only was she a perfect Lab-Shep mixture, she was in perfect health and smart as they come. Best watchdog either of us have ever had and the most loving animal you've ever seen. To say we loved our dog would be an understatement. We worshipped that puppy from the day we got her. She was more than just a member of our family, she was our dearest friend.

All of her life, she had the best treatment and the best food. Nearly every can of wet food we bought for her was Pedigree with Alpo sometimes bought to give her a change of pace. Since we also have a cat, from time to time we would even mix a little cat food in with her wet dog food to give her another change of pace. Unfortunately, we used Iams Cat Food until March 16, 2007.

Why I bought Western Family canned food for Majik, I'll never know. I was headed out of town for a 2 week business trip and I had stopped in a local grocery in Oakley, California to grab some coffee beans for my wife. As I was walking down the isle I stopped at the dog food section and noticed that the Western Family brand was a good price so I bought 8 or 10 cans of it so there would be plenty food for her while I was gone. I fed her her first can of Western Family on that same night Janruary 31, 2007.

I left on February 1, 2007, a Thursday. On February 3, 2007, a Saturday, I got a tearful call from my wife telling me that Majik was laying in her dog house on our deck, unable to move, vomiting all around her head. I was in shock. I was also 2,000 miles away. I tried my best to calm down my wife. Majik laid in her dog house in a pool of vomit overnight until my wife called her brother on the Sunday morning, February 4, 2007 and he was able to lift the dog up and bring her inside and put her on the bed. After being unable to revive the dog after a short time, they took her to our local vet in Antioch, California. He drew some blood and hydrated the dog. My wife refused to leave the dog at the Vet's and took her back home and laid her on her bed where she stayed for almost 10 days.

Over the course of the next 10 days or so, my wife literally nursed the dog back to health. She gave the dog no canned food and cooked her hamburger, steak, gave her cottage cheese, milk, cool water, pieces of real roast beef and turkey, etc. Slowly, Majik came back around.

I returned home on February 12, 2007 having driven nonstop from Louisiana to California, hurrying to get home to help my wife and puppy. I immediately took the dog back to the vet to talk with the vet about her. He gave her another blood test, telling me that her first test indicated kidney problems. He also prescribed some antibiotics. The following day, February 13, he called to tell me that the results of the second blood test were very positive and that the dog had made an amazing recovery. We thought everything was fine. Little did we know what was to come.

On February 14, 2007, we started feeding Majik canned food again, Western Family brand. On February 16, 2007, Majik and I sat in the front yard for a bit and I watched her playing happily on the front lawn and I called my wife to tell her how good Majik was doing. My wife was elated and relieved.

On the morning of February 17, 2007, a Saturday, I was sleeping in my easy chair in front of the TV after falling sleep watching a late night movie. My wife woke me up telling me that Majik had collapsed on the front sidewalk while following my wife out to get the morning paper, a morning ritual at our house. I ran outside to see my puppy laying nose down on the concrete. She was fading fast. I picked her up and took her inside and put her on a blanket on our couch.

I immediately called the vet and he said he would be in at 9:00 that morning. First, I went to see the vet by myself. We talked for a while about the health of the dog. He explained to me that there needed to be a series of tests run and possibly surgery. I was in shock, again. I just could not understand how a dog in such perfect health could get sick "out of the blue." I went back and told my wife that we had to either take Majik to take the tests and then possibly surgery or we would need to consider putting her to sleep, which was another alternative that the vet had given me.

My wife and I discussed the entire situation and we decided that it would be inhumane to put our beloved family member and friend through the tortures of tests, surgery, healing, etc. My wife was particularly sensitive to pain and surgery for she had just gotten over a very serious surgery that had happened at Christmas of 2006. In tears, we both decided together that she should be put to sleep and that would be the humane thing to do.

My brother-in-law and I took the dog to the vet and carried her inside and put her on the table. She drank her last sip of cool water out of my brother-in-laws hands. He couldn't stay and went outside. I held her head and kissed her good-bye and told her how much my wife and I loved her. She was gone in seconds after the vet put the needle in her leg. I closed her eyes and kissed her good-bye again.

After a miserable four weeks of trying to get over Majik's demise, consoling my wife who cried her self to sleep every night, and pondering how in the world could this have happened, I read a news story about Menu Foods doing a recall. On the morning of March 17, 2007, I went to their web site and learned that Western Family was one of the brands recalled. I was in shock, yet again. The following Monday, I went to the vet's office and got copies of Majik's blood tests. The first blood test, done on 2/5/07 indicated high levels of BUN (69) and CREATININE (3.8) which the vet informed me indicated kidney problems. However, the blood test done on February 15, 2007 showed her BUN at 10 and her CREATININE at 0.7 which the vet told me was normal.

It was at that point that I began to realize exactly what had happened. I purchased the Western Family canned food on Jan 31, 2007, the dog ate it for three days then keeled over. After going to the vet to be re-hydrated, my wife had actually nursed the dog back to health. When I got home and took the dog back to the vet and had the second blood test done, which indicated the animal was back to normal, I had resumed feeding her the canned food. Three days later, she keeled over again.

The conclusion was unavoidable: by feeding my dog the Western Family dog food, I had unknowingly poisoned the dog (NBC: RAT POISON FOUND IN TAINTED PET FOOD). My wife had nursed her back to health and then after receiving the results of the second test and knowing the dog was back to normal health, I had resumed feeding her (the now recalled Menu Foods - Western Family canned food) and I had poisoned her again.

Through their negligence, the greedy corporate bastards at Menu Foods Income Fund and Western Family had not only sold me the poison for my dog, they had turned me into a murderer like themselves for I unknowingly administered the poison food to her, twice.

I'm still shaking over the thought of killing my friend, Majik. I can't sleep, can't eat much and I can't hardly focus on my work. I'm livid to boot.

I tried for several days to reach Menu Foods at a number posted on their web site. I got busy signals and even out of order messages. I finally got through to them at sunrise on March 22, 2007 only to learn that the person on the phone was not even connected to Menu Foods but was a "phone bank" of some type hired to field the calls. The idiot on the phone couldn't even tell me who the lawyer for Menu Foods is. When I tried to leave my name and number, he hung up the phone in my face.

RIP my beautiful Majik. We'll always love you and we miss you very, very much.

I will pursue these negligent, murdering bastards until my dying breath, so help me, God.

Legal representative:

Blim & Edelson, LLC
The Monadnock Building
53 West Jackson Boulevard
Suite 1642
Chicago, Illinois 60604

Signed,

Robert G. Vernon
Antioch, California
Email