Marler Clark Calls for Legislation to Protect Visitors at Petting Zoos
Marler Clark, the Seattle law firm representing several victims of the recent Florida E. coli outbreak, is calling on legislators nation-wide to put into law requirements for the protection of petting zoo visitors. Proposed requirements include increasing signage and warnings about health risks associated with human-animal contact, providing adequate handwashing facilities at strategic locations throughout petting zoos, and designing petting zoos with the intent of reducing the risks of human contact with animal feces.
Seattle, WA (PRWEB) April 8, 2005 -- Marler Clark, the Seattle law firm
representing several victims of the recent Florida E. coli outbreak, is calling
on legislators nation-wide to put into law requirements for the protection of
petting zoo visitors.
Proposed requirements include increasing signage
and warnings about health risks associated with human-animal contact, providing
adequate handwashing facilities at strategic locations throughout petting zoos,
and designing petting zoos with the intent of reducing the risks of human
contact with animal feces. An outline of proposed requirements is available at
the Marler Clark-sponsored Web site www.fair-safety.com.
“I realize the measures we are
proposing might seem extreme,” said William Marler, managing partner of Marler
Clark. “But we’re looking at this from the standpoint of having represented
dozens of children who visited petting zoos and ended up with kidney failure and
life-long medical conditions.”
At this time, petting zoos must follow
guidelines set out in the Code of Federal Regulations. But those regulations
apply primarily to the humane handling and treatment of animals – not to
preventing transmission of zoonotic diseases. Few states have laws governing
human-animal contact at petting zoos; however, under Pennsylvania
law:
(1) An operator shall promote public awareness of the risk of
contracting a zoonotic disease at the animal exhibition and of the measures
necessary to minimize the risk of contraction by posting appropriate notices at
the animal exhibition.
(2) An adequate hand-cleansing facility for
adults and children shall be conveniently located on the animal exhibition
grounds. The operator shall post appropriate notices which designate the
location of the hand-cleansing facility . . . and encourage the cleansing of
hands after touching animals, using the restroom, and before eating.
Marler continued, “Pennsylvania has a start. The CDC released its
Recommendations for Human-Animal Contact in 2001, but petting zoo operators
haven’t been paying any attention to those, so it’s time the government stepped
in and made actual laws that govern this, instead of relying on petting zoo
operators to police themselves. Our kids’ health is at stake.”
Children,
the target population for petting zoos, are most susceptible to E. coli O157:H7
infection. Between five and ten percent of children who contract E. coli
infection will go on to develop hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can lead to
kidney failure and damage to the pancreas, liver, brain, and heart.
“I’ve
represented kids with varying levels of damage after suffering from HUS. Nearly
all of them are faced with needing multiple kidney transplants in their
lifetime. Most suffer from high blood pressure, and several have become
insulin-dependent diabetics,” Marler added. “So we can talk about HUS being a
rare disease, but these kids will have to live with debilitating medical
conditions for the rest of their lives.”
Caring for a person with
hemolytic uremic syndrome is costly. Marler has represented children with HUS
whose medical bills ranged from $15,000 to over $200,000. “And that’s just the
initial hospital stay and a year of check-ups,” Marler continued. “Over their
lifetimes, kids with HUS – kids who were healthy before they were exposed to E.
coli O157:H7 – will require millions of dollars worth of extra medical
treatment.”
“The kicker is, for the most part, families must carry the
burden of paying those medical bills on their own,” Marler said.
Most
government entities, including state fairs, are immune to lawsuits or can only
be sued for a limited amount of money, and the petting zoo industry is not known
for carrying large insurance policies to cover the costs of
litigation.
“The longer politicians and the fair industry resist changes,
the longer our children’s health and the health of the fair industry will be at
risk. If we can’t make fairs be financially responsible through legislation, at
least we can make them morally responsible,” Marler
concluded.
Background: Marler Clark (www.marlerclark.com) is a law firm dedicated to representing
victims of outbreaks of pathogenic bacteria, such as E. coli O157:H7. The firm
currently represents nine victims of the 2004 North Carolina State Fair E. coli
outbreak. Mr. Marler, who represented 29 victims of the 2002 Lane County,
Oregon, fair E. coli outbreak that sickened 82 people, recently spoke to the
International Association of Fairs and Expositions at their annual meeting in
Las Vegas, NV about the dangers of petting zoos.
For more information,
contact Suzanne Schreck at 206-346-1879.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/4/prweb226707.htm