A law firm representing the family of a 10-year-old boy has submitted documents for a lawsuit following his death June 12 from a rat purchased at one of Petco locations that at first made him sick.
Aidan Pankey was quickly brought to the hospital with very bad stomach pains he began experiencing the night before on June 11 along with a fever the AP reported on CBS News.com Tuesday.
Pankey was also almost unable to walk, appeared pale, and moved slowly according to the lawsuit CBS News reported before passing away, from what the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office is calling a streptobacillus moniliformis infection or rat-bite fever shortly after 1 a.m. on June 12.
"We are deeply saddened by the Pankey family's tragic loss. The health and safety of people and pets is always a top priority, and we take the family's concerns very seriously," Petco said in a statement the AP reported.
Pankey's grandmother bought the rat, who Aidan later named Alex so a first rat he had could have a companion according to Gomez the AP reported.
"He was a bright, energetic, friendly, happy kid who actually had a prior rat, who was a female, and he had this idea in his young head of having his female rat get married," John Gomez, who runs a law firm that is involved in the suit told the AP.
"It's a means to ensure this doesn't happen again," Gomez told CBS News. "Apparently there was some breakdown in procedures. They want tighter controls," Gomez told The AP.
Lab results via the Centers for Disease Control were not back yet, which therefore previously delayed attorneys filing lawsuit the AP reported. The agency examined the rat to see if it was sick.
The lawsuit reportedly states the rat was in safe-keeping, but Petco should have been aware about how sick the rat was
Petco is looking into points from the case that the company did not properly evaluate the rat to see if it had an illness, had no warnings regarding the rat's risk for children in particular, and did not pay attention to the situation that has led Aidan's parents' Andrew Pankey, and Vanessa Sauer to have emotional and economic strains the AP reported.
