No it doesn't seem fair at all but then nothing about this whole situation has been fair. Even if we ignore the falsehoods that brought us here in the first place.
The way the compassion fund itself was set up wasn't fair - there was absolutely no consideration given to owners whose cats were amongst the first to become ill and who had to pay for test after test whilst vets tried to work out what was going on. All cats did not become equally ill nor stay ill for the same length of time (dependent on lots of things), some owners paid for post morteums to try and help others find out what was going on. Only very limited items were covered by the compassion fund which left most people still significantly out of pocket even if all the allowed costs were covered which for most did not happen anyway. The time frame for the fund was very narrow and it was obvious when it was set up that most cats would not have recovered by the closing date of the fund and would still need ongoing veterinary care to maintain their improvement and continue on the road to recovery. Some cats collapsed and ended up dying just days after the fund closed - what about the costs these poor babies incurred for their frantic and then devasted owners.
What about the cats that were excluded from the fund that died of organ failure prior to becoming wobbley - Champion would not even acknowledge their deaths and yet we have seen a spate of wobbley cats die of organ failure since this started. And these cats weren't old sickly cats they were young apparently healthy cats that sickened and died after eating Orijen who like the wobbley cats did not respond to conventional treatments and whose kidney or pancreas or heart or........
? just suddenly stopped working with none of the symptoms you would normally expect to see. These cats too accrued expensive vet bills but as I said they are totally ignored by Champion.
And what about the vets that were helping us who paid for all their extra hours they put in trying to help us, for the tests they had run and didn't charge for as they knew the burden we were all under. For their calls to colleagues all over the world trying to work out what was going on, and once they knew trying to work out how to help. For the pressure they were under trying to deliver help and seeing cats they knew sicken and die. In some cases their own cats and their nursing staffs cats sicken and die.
And then there are is the issue of test results that were promised not being released, the version of the truth that was forth coming being dependent on who at Champion was making the comments and what they thought those listening knew, the changing story, the posting of inaccuracies on their website that when challenged they acknowledged in other places but never corrected on their site. The changing of the date for the compassion fund which when challenged was "a mistake". The passing of deadlines that they themself have set without any communication to affected owners. The failure to acknowledge let alone answer correspondence from affected owners and their vets. Need we go on if anyone reads the pages of this post and those on the Orijen thread at Itchmo they can form their own opinion of what has happened.
So as you can see fairness is not something anyone that has any knowledge of this situation, least of all affected owners and their vets, have come to expect from Champion.
Author