Frosted Flakes and other cereal brands are the unlikely target of a campaign by pet lovers who charge that the unassuming boxes act as death traps for small dogs.
Flushing resident Gina Mooney is the latest in a string of heartbroken pet owners to call for warning labels on cereal boxes after she came home Saturday to find her mixed-breed Molly dead with a Frosted Flakes box over her head. The pooch suffocated on the box’s plastic interior lining.
“I just started screaming — my husband could hear it from outside,” a tearful Mooney told The News on Monday. “I don’t want this happening to anyone else.”
Mooney launched plans Monday for a new letter-writing campaign to Kelloggs, the maker of Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops and Rice Krispies, among other cereals with rectangular boxes.
But Molly’s death isn’t an anomaly. Houston resident Bonnie Harlan launched Prevent Pet Suffocation after her dog Blue died with a Cheetos bag over his head.
“Since I started this campaign, I probably hear of two or three dogs a week who die this way,” said Harlan, whose pooch died about two years ago. “The more they try to breathe the tighter the bag gets. It’s a horrible death.”
Harlan has spent years petitioning Frito-Lay to put warnings on products, but has had no success.
Dr. Ann Hohenhaus, a veterinarian at the Animal Medical Center, said people food is irresistible to dogs — but both the ingredients and packaging can be deadly.
“It is so hard to predict what is going to be the next crisis your pet will do that you never thought they would do,” said Hohenhaus. “It’s really important to do everything you can to keep human food away from your pet.”
“We encourage any customer with questions or concerns about our products to contact Consumer Affairs, and we will do our best to appropriately address their issue,” the Kellogg Company said in response to an inquiry about the warning labels.
