June 10, 2009

NEW YORK -- The Environmental Protection Agency is “intensifying its evaluation” of hundreds of spot-on flea and tick products, which contain pesticides and may have accounted for thousands of pet injuries and deaths in the past two years.

A “significant increase” in the number of reports prompted the EPA to investigate the individual commercial products and their major manufacturers, including Hartz Mountain Corp., Central Life Sciences and Bayer AG, according to EPA spokesman Dale Kemery.

The agency is not, however, recommending or requiring any companies to recall their products.

Kemery says the EPA is not targeting specific companies -- just the products that may have contributed to the 44,263 incident reports the EPA received in 2008. Approximately 1,200 of those reports accounted for animal deaths.

The numbers mark a sharp increase from the approximate 28,000 incidents pet owners reported in 2007.

“There has been this increase and there is definitely a concern,” Kemery said. “That’s why we are investigating this.

“I’m not sure we can say there has been one group of reactions, but there are certain ones that have been most common, like skin problems, and some seizures have also been reported among certain animals. There have been reports of deaths.”

Though the EPA is only now drawing more attention to this issue, spot-on flea and tick related incidents are not novel to the ASPCA’s poison control center, according to Steve Hansen, ASPCA veterinary toxicologist and senior vice president of Animal Health Services.

“From our database, we haven’t really seen a jump in reports -- there have certainly been an increase in the calls we get, because our call line grows every year, but we have been getting complaints about this for 20 years, at least,” Hansen said. “I remember taking calls in the 90s about toxicology issues like this -- this certainly not something new in the field.

“Our problems that we used to have with those products are actually much fewer, now. Clearly the products have gotten safer -- but that doesn’t mean we can’t continue to improve.”

Yet pet owners continue to speak out in mass in online forums, lamenting the harm they say spot-on treatments, or ointments that kill fleas and ticks and halt production of their eggs, have caused to their animals.

BioSpotVictims.org is just one of the message boards devoted to pet owner testimonials about the chemical-based products. People from across the country write to site founder James TerBush, reporting everything from hair thinning to consecutive seizures, all reactions, they say, which directly followed the application of popular products like K9 Advantix and BioSpot Flea and Tick Control.

TerBush established BioSpotVictims seven years ago, after he applied BioSpot ointment on his then 1-year-old Dalmatian, Hamish. Within one hour, Hamish suffered a grand mal seizure -- that night, he endured three more.

TerBush said his veterinarian could not identify the exact cause of the seizure, but he noted that Hamish never again experienced seizures, and has since been in fine health. Following Hamish’s episodes, TerBush set up the Web site, he says, to provide a virtual meeting place and information source for the thousands of pet owners who have stories like his own.

“I put the Web site together to let others know about my experience, and ask them to contact me if they ever had a similar experience with the product,” TerBush wrote in an e-mail to Zootoo Pet News. “It was important for me to know if my dog's incident was unique, or if it was happening to others.”

Targeted companies are, in turn, responding to their concerned customers and the public as this story makes way through the media circuits.

“We’re giving our customers as much information as we are able to give, based off of what the EPA has asked us to do,” said Mark Newberg, director of corporate affairs for Central Life Sciences. “There are no recalls involved, and people have not been asked to stop using the products. We are reviewing all of our information and doing our best to keep everyone informed, and our animals safe.”

The Hartz Mountain Corp., one of the targeted companies in online forums, says it has not documented an increase in reported adverse effects from spot-on treatments. The company obtained the EPA’s records and analyzed the data against their own.

While Hartz is responsible for more than 50 percent of retail sales in the spot-on treatment, “Hartz tropical products accounted for less than five percent of all adverse effects, including those reported for veterinarian-sold and retail brands,” it said in a Friday afternoon statement issued to Zootoo Pet News.

“Topical pet pesticides serve an important role in protecting pets and their families from the debilitating diseases associated with fleas, ticks and mosquitoes, such as Lyme Disease, but must be used with care,” the statement reads.

Hansen also spoke to the importance of protecting animals from flea, ticks and mosquitoes, while also not jumping to conclusions about culprits in the situation. He says that few thorough investigations have actually been conducted to determine the source of reported skin irritations or other ailments.

“The biggest problem we have is that there is not enough investigation on this,” Hansen said. “Animals die, and their owners say it is from this, but we don’t know, really. I encourage anyone who thinks his or her pets have been affected by this to really try to make a direct, scientific correlation. People are suing on a monthly basis about this, but the problem is often not the flea product itself.”

Most frequently, Hansen says, people don’t read or follow the application instructions listed on the products’ packaging. Or, they give their cats a product intended for dogs -- a potentially toxic recipe.

"Products labeled for dogs must never be used on cats -- doing so can result in serious illness and even death," said Louise Murray, medical director of the ASPCA's Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital, in the media release. "A veterinarian must always be consulted before using spot-on flea and tick treatments on very young, old, sick or pregnant pets."

An ASPCA study, released last Wednesday, found that when cats were treated “inappropriately,” or not per label instructions, they were “significantly more likely to experience severe reactions.”

Forty-five percent of pet owners reported “moderate illness,” while 19 percent accounted for “major illness,” and 17 percent reported “mild illness.” Two percent called the ASPCA about animal deaths, while 18 percent witnessed no illness at all.

When dogs and cats were treated correctly, the study found, only .1 percent of pet owners called in to report animal deaths, which 69 percent cited mild illness, and 22 percent complained of moderate illness. Two percent of the calls addressed major illness.

The EPA cautions pet owners that they should carefully select the correct spot-on treatment for their specific species of pet, its weight, age and physical condition. Medicated, sick, pregnant, nursing, aged or ill animals should not receive the treatment without a veterinarian’s consent.

To view the full list of the products the EPA is investigating, visit