Two weeks after Aidan Pankey and his grandmother bought pet rat ‘Alex’ from Petco in San Diego, Aidan become incredibly sick and died two days later. The cause? Rat bite fever.
The 10-year-old’s devastated family have now launched a legal suit and civil trial against Petco, claiming the company knew they were selling infected rats and people were getting sick but failed to provide an adequate warning to customers.
Before Aiden bought the rat in 2013, there were more than a dozen reported incidents in the U.S of individuals contracting rat bite fever from Petco animals, the court heard.
“Despite this, you will hear that Petco is still selling rats to kids and kids are still getting sick,” attorney Bibianne Fell said during her opening statement in San Diego Superior Court. “To this day, Petco is still selling rats.”
The disease can be spread through bites, scratches or even just touching rodents including rats, mice and gerbils.
However, Petco’s attorneys say it’s impossible to ensure every single one of the millions of rats the company sells is free from bacteria that could be harmful to humans and as a result, they warn customers of the dangers.
“There are risks with owning any pet,” said attorney Kimberly Oberrecht, who characterised rat bite fever as quite a low one due to its rarity and the fact it’s treatable with antibiotics.
“Statistics aren’t reported to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) because it doesn’t happen very often. … So this is not an epidemic as the plaintiffs would have you believe,” Oberrecht told the jury.
Symptoms are similar to those of the flu, which is what Aidan was diagnosed with before being sent home from the doctor. They include:
• Fever and chills.
• Headache.
• Ulceration at the site of the bite with red streaks.
• Swelling of the lymph nodes.
• A skin rash with reddish-brown or purple plaques.
• Muscle pain and arthritis (rare)
• Vomiting and sore throat (Haverhill fever)
The case continues.
