October 9, 2008

Chai, above, had to have his tongue amputated in June after playing with Four Paws' "Pimple Ball with Bell," which was recalled in August. (Pet Pulse Photo Courtesy of Daniel Rechelbacher, Design by Mike Lloyd)

NEW YORK -- A rubber toy ball has taken the life of at least one dog, and has now left one lab-mix without a tongue, prompting an August product recall of 10 comparable toys.

Chai, a 10-and-a-half-year-old lab-mix lost part of his tongue when playing with a "Pimple Ball with a Bell," manufactured by Four Paws, Inc., in June.

The recall didn't come in time to spare Chai an injury that has totalled his owner Daniel Rechelbacher more than $5,000.

Now Rechelbacher is going to court to seek damage costs from Four Paws, Inc. A court date has yet to be announced.

The accident has created much misery and suffering for Chai, Rechelbacher says, leaving him initially unable to eat, drink or effectively cool off by himself.

The incident occurred on June 22 when Chai was at home by himself, waiting for his pet sitter in Rechelbacher's Lower Manhattan apartment.

Rechelbacher was in Minneapolis, attending a friend's wedding, when the pet sitter called him on a Sunday afternoon.

Chai's tongue was stuck in the ball he had been playing with, the sitter told Rechelbacher. The sitter was unable to free the tongue herself and took Chai to a vet.

"And they (vet) were taking away parts of his tongue like one day they had to take away the tip, the next two days they had to take away more and finally they ended up having to take everything to where it connects to the bottom of his mouth," Rechelbacher said.

A vacuum-like effect had suctioned Chai's tongue into the ball, which contained only one dime-sized hole, and not a secondary one to release air.

Rechelbacher says Chai was writhing in pain when he returned home, with only a tiny portion of his tongue remaining.

As Chai began the recovery process, it would take an hour-and-a-half for him to eat a can of vet-recommended wet dog food. In addition, to keep Chai hydrated, Rechelbacher had to inject water into his dog's mouth since he had no tongue to lap up water.

Rechelbacher blogged about Chai's misfortune online, and was surprised to receive responses from other pet owners whose dogs had suffered similar accidents from the same pimple ball.

Some of these accidents even resulted in deaths.

The pimple ball has been recalled, Four Paws, Inc., executive vice president Barry Askin said.

The company has also taken back hundreds of thousands of dollars of products and Askin says the product will not be reintroduced until he is 100 percent certain this problem will never occur again.

"One of the main ways we are making sure this doesn't happen again is that the package before was in a bluster card and now the product has a zip tie that goes right through the ball," Askin said. "So if the second hole for some reason is sealed, they couldn't package it."

Four Paws has agreed to compensate Rechelbacher for part of the medical expenses, which have proved challenging for him to handle.

"I've closed my business down for a couple of days. I'd (sic) to reduce the amount of time I was booking for clients," Rechelbacher said.

"His (Chai) food is going to be more expensive for the rest of his life and I wanted them (Four Paws) to cover his medical bills related to this injury."

Smith says New York animal-related laws consider pets personal property and value them at a quantitative replacement cost.

"Right now, the law is irresponsible and quite blind, in my opinion, in the way it treats pets," Smith said. "If it costs you nothing to go to the shelter and pick up a shelter dog, therefore, it doesn't cost you anything to replace your dog if, God forbid, it was negligently killed or there was vet malpractice."

Even more so, there is no regulation that lays out guidelines for the manufacture of pet toys, unlike in the case of children's toys, which often come with warning labels.

For this reason, Dr. Jill Richardson, resident vet at Zootoo.com, recommends pet owners research toy safety before playtime begins.

Still, Richardson feels the industry could be held to a higher standard for ensuring pets' safety.

"With this (Chai's) case, it makes you think there should be something done," Richardson said. "A group of vets, pet owners and pet enthuisasts that (should) get together and make some standards for the toys."

Meanwhile, Smith hopes to make the most out of Chai's case to try to reform the way courts view pets.

"They (pets) are family," he said. "So many people say 'I love you' to their pet every single day. So many people have birthday parties for their pets and even custody disputes."

Their case might be supported with instances of other pets who suffered similar fates.

One five-year-old black Labrador Retriever, Cole, died after he got his tongue stuck in a similar model of the Pimple Ball in 2005.

His owner, Zoa Kile, recalled the night of she came back from vacation with her family and their two dogs and two cats greeted them. But Cole, her energetic black lab, as she fondly called him, was in pain and had the ball stuck on his tongue.

Kile rushed him to the vet, who had to cut through the quarter-inch thick rubber ball to remove it.

"His (Cole) tongue was restricted for three hours and it was swollen beyond his teeth," Kile said.

Several days after the surgery, it seemed the repair attempts were not enough as the affected part of Cole's tongue began to detach and bleed profusely.

Complications ensued and Kile and her family made the decision to euthanize their pet.

"We just felt that it wasn't something that he could handle because he was a very energetic, very happy-go-lucky dog and we just felt that we can’t do that to him," she said.

Kile called and wrote letters to Four Paws for three months after the incident, requesting the design of the ball be changed -- never receiving a reply. It was only after multiple phone calls following up on registered letters that company representatives responded.

"I was asking for them to change the design because it seemed like a simple thing to change," she said of the ball which appeared to need a second hole. "But it was a manufacturing problem, in 2005, that they were notified of so I'm not quite sure why it couldn't have been fixed then."

While Chai seems to be recovering without life-threatening complications, it's a happy ending that still has a long road to recovery, Rechelbacher says.

"It was really really horrible to watch something that gives you unconditional love just suffer and there is nothing you can do to take the suffering away," he said.

To learn more about Chai's story, visit Rechelbacher''s blog at TheChaiStory.BlogSpot.com.

To view the Four Paws' warning about this product, visit fourpaws.com.

To keep your pet safe from toys, Dr. Richardson also suggests avoiding products that can easily be chewed off.

Other life-saving advice Richardson gives to owners, includes: having the local emergency clinic number always on hand; alerting the vet of an estimated time of arrival during an emergency visit;supervising a pet's play as some pets can be destructive with toys.

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