From WPXI.com…
Although fleas and ticks are a threat to pets year round– this time of year, the nuisance becomes even greater and our state sees a high number of tick-borne illnesses.
Tens of thousands of pet owners believe flea collars hurt or killed their pets.
“He got really sick after I put this collar around him in the fall,” Shugart said. “He started having problems with his salivary glands, and then problems with his eyes.”
She bought the collars at Walmart, and put them on Mr. Jones and her other dog, Benson, who ended up dying from cancer.
“It was heartbeaking,” she said. “When I thought about the collars and I wondered if there was a link between the two.”
Shugart is one of more than 86,000 pet owners who filed a formal complaint with the Environmental Protection Agency after using Seresto collars.
Mickey Hearn is another. She took a video of what happened to her dog, Buddy.
“I was furious that they just denied it,” Hearn said. “And not just for me but for the thousands of other people.”
Scientists said Seresto uses two powerful pesticides that spread through your pets hair, into their follicles and glands.
“I don’t think the testing for Seresto was adequate,” said Karen McCormack, a former EPA scientist. “We were getting over 86,000 incidents for Seresto, which is a huge number of incidents.”