KANSAS CITY, Mo., June 17 (UPI) -- A Nevada company and its owners pleaded guilty in federal court to distributing a tainted ingredient used to make pet food, the Justice Department said.
The tainted pet food lead to a nationwide recall and the death or serious illness of numerous pets across the United States in 2007.
Sally Qing Miller, 43, a Chinese national, and her husband, Stephen S. Miller, 56, both of Las Vegas, along with their company, Chemnutra, Inc., pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Maughmer in Kansas City, Mo., to some of the charges contained in 2008 federal indictment, the Justice Department said Wednesday in a news release. The couple agreed that the remaining counts could be considered against them at the time of sentencing.
Each of the three co-defendants pleaded guilty to one count of selling adulterated food and one count of selling misbranded food.
More than 800 metric tons of wheat gluten tainted with melamine was imported by Chemnutra and the Millers into the United States from China between Nov. 6, 2006, and Feb. 21, 2007, court documents said. The product then was sold and shipped to U.S. customers, who used it to manufacture various brands of pet food.
"Millions of pet owners were impacted by the pet food recall in 2007," said Matt J. Whitworth, acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. "The conduct of these defendants in violating federal health and safety standards caused the deaths and illness of thousands of family pets, as well as anxiety among dog and cat owners across the country and economic harm to many pet food manufacturers."
