Yorkshire terriers. Photo: OlgaOvcharenko/Shutterstock.com

Nationwide litigation against a dog food manufacturer, which recalled some batches of pet food with excessive levels of Vitamin D, has landed in Texas.

This time, the lawsuit is by a dog breeder, who alleged the food caused the deaths of 16 of her Yorkshire Terriers and Chihuahuas.

The new litigation, which defendant Hill's Pet Nutrition Inc. on Thursday moved from state court to federal court, joins a list of 30-plus lawsuits from California, Florida, New York and other states that are being consolidated in a multidistrict litigation action before Chief Judge Julie Robinson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.

Plaintiff Claudette Fontenot specializes in breeding Yorkie and Chihuahua puppies. She claimed in her petition she paid more for Hill's food because of the company's promises of premium ingredients, quality, safety standards and oversight. But she alleged those promises turned out to be false.

On Jan. 31, Hill's recalled canned Prescription Diet and Science Diet products because of excessive Vitamin D levels due to a supplier error. The recall in February expanded to additional SKU and lot numbers.

Fontenot's complaint alleged her dogs started getting sick in September 2018 and exhibited excessive thirst, drooling and lethargy. It claimed she incurred vet bills, and that 16 dogs had died by by March 11. Eventually she got notice of the recall and realized her deceased dogs' symptoms were consistent with Vitamin D poisoning, Fontenot's complaint claimed.

"Plaintiff paid a premium for a product that sickened or killed her dogs—and thousands of others—across the country," said the petition.

Fontenot is suing Hill's for product liability, negligence and multiple violations of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. She seeks to recover for healthcare expenses for the dogs, mental anguish, loss of companionship, lost wages, attorney fees and exemplary damages.

The Texas case is so new that no response has yet come from Hill's, a company that produces prescription diets that veterinarians' offices sell for pets with health problems. However, its notice of removal did mention the company would vigorously fight Fontenot's allegations that Hill's alleged malice and gross negligence made the plaintiff eligible for exemplary damages.

The notice also said that the plaintiff's petition failed to allege that she had fed her 16 dogs Hill's products between September 2018 and March 2019, when she claimed they fell ill and died. It argued that Fontenot also did not allege she had taken any dogs to the vet, gotten them tested for vitamin D toxicity, or treated them for Vitamin D poisoning.

Hill's spokesman Tom Olson didn't immediately return an email seeking comment, and Hill's Texas-based defense attorney Quincy Jones of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani in Dallas also didn't return a call or email.

However, the company expressed regret in a March statement about the recall.

"As a company, and as pet parents ourselves, we deeply regret the concern that this recall and subsequent expansion have caused pet parents and any possible effect the recalled foods may have had on pets," the company said. "We are committed to doing more to uphold the standards of pet care that pet parents and veterinarians expect of us to earn back their trust."

Hill's intends to try moving Fontenot's case to the multidistrict litigation in Kansas, the notice said.

That is not the preference of Fontenot's attorney, Cody Dishon, partner in The Ferguson Law Firm in Beaumont. His client wants a trial rather than seeing her matter lumped into other cases that resolve from a closed-door settlement, he said.

"A lot of people in the class action are probably not breeders, so I don't know if the settlement would benefit her. She has an economic component that the other people who have filed a lawsuit probably don't have," added Dishon. "She'd like to raise awareness, and she can do that through a trial. Closed-door settlements and getting tied up in Kansas in litigation doesn't raise a lot of awareness to the people this affects here in Texas."