A Twitter user is claiming that moldy dog food killed her pet - and she's confronting the company with this photo
"PSA: This @bluebuffalo bag of dog food has mold at the bottom which could've KILLED my dogs!" Twitter user iittssaavv wrote on Twitter in late March. "Spread the word to any blue buffalo users!!!"
On Tuesday, she posted an update: one of the dogs had died a few days ago from a heart attack and the other dog is experiencing liver failure.
"This will NOT go unnoticed," iittssaavv wrote.
Blue Buffalo responded to the original tweet apologizing, and said that its customer service team would like to learn more about the incident. The company did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
The tweets have since gone viral, with the original tweet being retweeted more than 5,000 times.
The report of moldy dog food comes on the heels of a voluntary Blue Buffalo recall of its Wilderness Rocky Mountain Recipe Red Meat Dinner Wet Food, due to the meal containing elevated levels of naturally occurring beef thyroid hormone. And, last March, the company recalled a batch of dry dog food due to mold concerns.
However, it's unlikely that Blue Buffalo will be found legally liable for the mold. Pet owners are instructed to store dog food in a air-tight container, not the bag, to avoid mold. Further, it's possible that the grocery or pet store improperly stored the bag, meaning that the retailer, not Blue Buffalo, would be at fault.
Typically, when pet owners accuse dog food companies of poisoning their dogs with mold, it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Often, owners are quick to blame dog food on any pet's illness, simply because pet food is the one constant in their dogs' lives.
"People and pets eat every day," Julie Churchill, a veterinary nutritionist, told Popular Science in 2015. "Whenever something goes awry, it's really human nature to look to the food."
However, ingesting mold can be fatal for dogs. According to Whole Dog Journal, some dogs will be unaffected by injesting eating mold, while other dogs who are allergic to molds may have a dangerous allergic response