Study Finds Petland Top Location of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Outbreak

By Orlando Personal Injury Attorney on October 10, 2018

A somewhat triumphant occurrence happened in Orlando this week when a group of epidemiologists working at the Orange County based Florida Department of Health discovered just what has been causing numerous people all over the country to become extremely sick due to a strain of bacteria that appears resistant to antibiotics. According to the news reports, the team working on discovering the origin of the bacteria received a boost to their investigation when they began to notice that all the cases they were investigating possessed one thing in common: each sick person had recently come into contact with puppies at pet store chains.

The first instances of people getting sick happened last year inside of Orange County. Beginning with just five individuals suffering from a bacteria known as Campylobacter jejuni, the team researching the bacterial infection quickly found that there were many more cases than just those within Florida. At the time of this writing, it is believed that a total of 18 different states all report instances of people becoming sick due to exposure to the aggressive bacteria.

By the numbers, it is apparent that many of the people who began exhibiting signs of exposure to the bacteria were pet store workers: specifically, employees of the chain of pet stores known as Petland, which is a chain of pet stores headquartered in Ohio but with chains throughout the country. Orlando alone features two different Petland locations, and it is believed that several staff and customers all contracted the bacteria due to puppies in the store that came from numerous different puppy mills.

The Centers for Disease Control did indicate that as well as Petland there were five other pet store chains that also had connections to the outbreak of the bacteria. In all of the cases, the evidence suggests that the bacteria began to emerge after the puppies received several courses of antibiotics. It is not uncommon for puppy mills to inject their puppies with low-level doses of antibiotics that the animals do not necessarily need in order to prevent the emergence of common diseases. The biggest problem around this is that certain bacteria then begins to develop a resistance to the treatment, making it so that when an outbreak occurs there is almost nothing that can be done to stop it.

At the time of this writing, it is not known if any legal action has been filed against Petland and the other pet store chains in relation to these incidents.

Sources:

• Bacterial outbreak found in Orlando linked to contact with pet store puppies

James O. Cunningham

Since 1977, personal injury lawyer James Cunningham has provided effective legal advocacy to people who are injured through the negligent actions of another person or entity throughout the Central Florida area. He fights to obtain recoveries for his clients’ physical and emotional pain and suffering and pursues his clients’ personal injury cases with a commitment to excellence and impeccable preparation.