• Byrd says her dog Bea’s health declined rapidly after Byrd purchased and began using the companies’ Seresto flea collars.
• Bayer was the original manufacturer of the Seresto collars, and Elanco has continued producing and marketing the collars since buying Bayer’s animal health division in 2020.
• Byrd’s suit seeks class-action status on behalf of herself and “all others similarly situated.”

Details: In her lawsuit, Byrd says she first purchased three Seresto flea collars in June 2021 for a total of $224.71 and used them on both of her dogs.

• The lawsuit claims that there were no warnings about potential harm to dogs anywhere on the packaging for the collars when she bought them.
• After Byrd began using the collars, Bea’s health “rapidly declined,” and Byrd grew concerned about her dog’s symptoms.
• She took Bea to a veterinarian, where she was prescribed medicine for what the veterinarian believed was a “neurological issue”.
• Roughly a month later, Bea was put down.

Zooming out: Since Bayer first began making Seresto collars in 2012, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has received roughly 2,500 pet death reports and more than 98,000 incident reports in connection to use of the collars, according to Byrd’s suit.

• Court records note that Bayer was the subject of a 16-month investigation by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, which ultimately faulted the EPA for a “rushed” and “flawed” process to approve Seresto collars.
• Byrd says in her suit that if she had known all that, she would not have purchased Seresto collars for her dogs.

In response: Bayer and Elanco have both maintained Seresto collars are safe and effective.

• In an FAQ on its website about the Seresto collars, Elanco says, “There is no evidence in the scientific evaluation conducted for registration or the regularly reviewed pharmacovigilance data to suggest a recall of Seresto is warranted, nor has one been requested, or even suggested by any regulatory agency.”

Where the Seresto collar case stands

The case was filed with the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., on Nov. 2., and District Judge Kathryn Vrtail has been assigned to the case, according to the case docket.

• The attorney representing Byrd did not immediately respond to the Post’s inquiries about the timeline going forward or whether there are currently other plaintiffs in the case.