Thursday, August 21, 2008

Boycott Four Paws

There is another thing that has concerned all of us over these tragic and needless events and one of Jan's siblings, an RN, has the same concern......what if a small child picked up one of these balls and put it in his/her mouth? That is what children do!

Four Paws, for what appears to be negligence, lies, lack of empathy and total lack of regard for your customers' safety or welfare, we hope you get your butt whipped soundly!


(s) Jan/Crystal, Cotton, Merci, Cyndi, Percy, Cameron, Buddy, Rusty & Samaritan

Latest update!!! We have just checked Chai's blog again and we are biting back rude words that Jan says we are never to say. This is not a new problem. The company has been aware of the flaw in the toy's design AT LEAST since July 2005 when Cole was euthanized for the same type injury. At that time the company assured Cole's owner the problem was being taken care of. The company's offer is being rejected by Chai's owner, evidently a man of greater integrity than has been shown by Four Paws.

Zinger left a comment on our last post, asking if we had heard about Chai. We followed the link and were so shocked, we unanimously decided to put a warning on our journal, hoping to help other woofies avoid the same situation.

All toys are not safe for cats, dogs or even for human children. But when a danger is found, manufacturers do not want to admit the problem or remove a product from the shelves. Why they would rather endanger lives and risk lawsuits rather than warn the public and recall a product is beyond us. Isn't life - and quality of life - more important than green papers?

That's another rhetorical question. We all know what is most important to too many humans.

We feel that reading the story that goes with the 2 videos is necessary to understand the full severity of the problem. So we are not posting the Chai videos here. We want you to go read the story and watch the after videos together.

Chai is a lab mix who had a serious injury while playing with a small ball with a bell inside. His human chose surgery rather than euthanasia for his woofie, even though this has changed the human's ability to earn a living for the moment. We commend him for loving Chai and investing so much time, effort and green papers in his welfare.

And although we are not surprised, we are appalled that, although Chai is not the only dog to have this same injury, the company refuses to recall it and apply a simple fix.

There is a link to an older case of a German Shepherd getting his tongue caught in one of those balls, but the vet hospital has removed the link. (We would guess there was too much traffic following the link and consuming their bandwidth.) We did manage to google it and see the cached page, which will not be available after the next Google web crawl for pages. That case was not as severe and the Shepherd's injury healed. But the same short video of that dog is available.



For this reason, Chai's human is calling for an international boycott of all Four Paws products. You can read the original story on The Chai Story. And the updates here.

And if you read to the end, you will find a way you can help save other woofies from the same injury.

33 comments:

  1. w00f's JFF, me saw about this on Khyras bloggie, dat poor doggie, me iz gonna rite dat company and big time complain....

    b safe,
    ~rocky~

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  2. Thankies fur the heads up. Us Ballicai are appalled at beans who care more about green papurs than they do about the welfare of living creetures.

    Kittyhugs and purrs from MaoMao.

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  3. We are thankful that we never had such a toy! (my mom gives us toilet paper cardboard which is a great safe toy!) We will boycott that company!

    love & wags,
    River

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  4. Jan, shocked and with tears in my eyes I read Chai's story and watched the videos. And although Four Paws contacted all their customers to remove this ball from their shelves, it is too late for Chai and who knows how many other dogs. Chai is lucky to have a loving family who can and will effort the costs and extra care for him, but for how many dogs who played with this ball it was too late? Four Paws brought the ball on the market after simply looking at it (quote from the company), and after reviewing it they found something was wrong... Next to unprofessional this is unforgivable!! "Four Paws® is the brand you can trust, offering a wide range of products that will help you care for your pet throughout its lifetime." Four Paws must be ashamed, they don't care!!

    Chai lost his tongue, thank you, Jan, for speaking for him! I am not sure this company's products are on the Dutch market, but I post it some forums and blogs just in case.

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  5. Angry and sad by Chai's story I completely forgot I also want to thank you for your kindest words after my sister Maxime went to the Bridge last week.

    Yes, it was difficult to make the Saturday post in violet for Violet so soon. But the CB is such a close, warm and caring family, we all understand each others pain and loss, and knowing that we care, love and think of them is the less thing we can do to maybe comfort them a little.

    Thank you, Jan!

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  6. Jan, we meowies and MOM thank u for the post- we have little fur mices that MOM cuts of the leather tails so we dont chew them off. [ another danger to meowies and wolfies ]
    she ckes all toys over before WE get them -
    we are sorry to read of Chai
    but maybe people will take notice and ck wolfies and meowies toys
    and tell the makies Not to hurt us in the things they make!

    Annie,Gyp, and Mollie
    and MOM
    she had to write this- she will not let us near the putter...
    keep all us kriters safe

    KC { AKA }Gentleanie2.com

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  7. That is a terrible story, but I am glad that Four Paws is now taking some responsibility. The really sad thing is that the company has known about this problem for years and has just now taken action. I don't think I like them very much.

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  8. thank you Jan - he posted an update that they finally ack'd the problem with him and pulled the toy... but no mention of monetary help for his dog... i suspect they only said that because of the heat on them...

    then i scanned the comments on his blog and there's a comment from a dog owner who had the same problem with the SAME TOY in 2004!!! and back then they said they fixed it. that person's dog died...

    UGH.

    i need to put a link to my blog as well

    thank you for catching it.

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  9. It mite take a long time, but using our voices to speek up is always a good thing!

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  10. Thank you for letting us know about this dangerous toy!

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  11. Thank you for letting us know. This is heartbreaking, and reminds us all to much of how Menu Foods knew there was something wrong with their pet food months before the recall. We will help you get the word out.

    ~Alasandra & The Cats

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  12. thank you for sharing this story!

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  13. I feel so sorry that Chai had to go through this. Thank goodness Four Paws finally did the right thing. It is good to remember that not all toys are safe, and I hope that something like this will never happen to another animal of any kind.

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  14. Pet toys should be regulated just like children's toys, but I have the feeling that's never gonna happen.

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  15. thanks fur letting me know BUT there has since been an update to the update -

    more leaking to be done -

    Hugz&Khysses,
    Khyra

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  16. Oh, we are so mad the company knew since 2005. Poor Chai and who knows how many other doggies didn't have to be hurt.

    We don't understand why companies are so greedy and Mommy says stupid cause if you hurt or kill your customers they won't use you any more.

    Mommy will never use any cat food that is manufactured by Menu Foods even if she has to do tons of research to learn where our food comes from. ~S, S & C

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  17. I'm SOOOOOO ANGRY!

    I wrote those people an email, and i hope they listen up and understand that this community (pet lovers) is not one to be messed with!

    I HATE this company for what they have done, and i will tell EVERYONE who will listen!

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  18. Thanks for sharing Jan. We'll have to go check out the link now!

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  19. mum of critters called this to our attention and we sent out the emails - so shameful and horrible. But so "normal business" with corporations these days. It is disgusting.

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  20. I Dare You!
    Yes, it is time again for another challenge from The Cat Realm! Come and check out the details on our blog.
    I hope you will accept the challenge and will eagerly await your entry!
    Karl

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  21. Sorry - I was logged in with the wrong account... it is me, Karl from The Cat Realm, who dared you!

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  22. This is so horrible thank you for making me aware.

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  23. Thanks for dropping by,
    I think we should all continue to boycott, and keep writting letters about this horrible, evil, greedy company.

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  24. We read those stories. It's just awful! Poor Chai (and others) had to go through so much pain. We hope no other animal ever suffers this way ever again.

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  25. This is so very horrible. I, too, hope no others suffer.

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  26. oohh nooes... dis here is hurribuls.

    no no no none non... we wont gets any Four Paws products ifns dis is how dey makes stuffins.

    Mawmee is careful bouts buyin toys... dehr aint no regulayshuns and lots of toys coulds hurts baybees likes us!! whats is dey tinkin? bout dis symbol $$$$.

    Well we sticks to papur toys n baby spoons if we hafs to!!

    Katie Too

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  27. Dat aint no toyz! Dat nassy, nassy thingie. OK?

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  28. Thank you so much for calling our attention to this issue. It's so sad that the company was negligent long after they were made aware of the problem.

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  29. We read the story today and are very mad at Four Paws for their greedy and negligent behaviour...they still have the products displayed on their website...

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  30. Holy cats! We had no idea about this happening. Thank you for bringing it to our attention, Jan.

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  31. These are heartbreaking stories. If something like this had happened to a child, it would be all over the national news and a massive investigation would be underway. But, because our society is still so backwards in its ethical treatment of animals, the story takes a backseat. That makes me angry. Thank you for helping to spread the word.

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  32. A truly heartbreaking story - I too thank you for spreading the story. This must be stopped from ever happening again.

    Author, and Milo x

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  33. A truly heartbreaking story - I too thank you for spreading the story. This must be stopped from ever happening again.

    Author, and Milo x

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