Family sues PetSmart after parrot fever kills father

by Stephanie Sobotka | June 18, 2008 at 04:44 pm | 536 views | add comment

A Corpus Christi family is suing PetSmart after Joe De La Garza Sr. died after catching parrot fever from a bird purchased at one of their stores. The man contracted the bacterial infection after his daughter purchased a cockatiel. The daughter, Amanda De La Garza also became ill and was hospitalized. The family isn’t suing for money at this time, but wants PetSmart to stop selling cockatiels and other similar birds.

A local family is suing PetSmart claiming that Joe De La Garza Sr., 63, died after catching parrot fever from a bird purchased at its Corpus Christi store.

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Nueces County state court after an autopsy report showed that De La Garza Sr. died in 2006 of psittacosis, also known as parrot fever, family members said.

De La Garza’s family said that the retired Marine contracted the disease from a cockatiel — a small Australian parrot with gray and yellow feathers — 16 days after his daughter, Amanda De La Garza, bought the bird from Corpus Christi’s PetSmart store on Sept. 30, 2006.

The lawsuit claims that an autopsy done on the bird by Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory in Nov. of 2006 found that the animal also died of psittacosis.

Psittacosis is a bacterial infection transmitted by many species of birds to humans through contact.

Houston attorney Ron Franklin, who is representing Amanda, Joe Jr. and Joe Sr.’s brother Michael De La Garza in the lawsuit, said they are not suing for money at this time but for PetSmart to stop selling cockatiels and other similar birds.

The lawsuit claims that Amanda De La Garza, who lived with her father in Corpus Christi at the time, also became hospitalized with psittacosis in 2006.

She said she spent about six weeks at Doctor’s Regional Hospital in Corpus Christi and in a Houston hospital forcing her to miss her father’s funeral while piling up more than $300,000 in medical expenses. Thanks to antibiotics, Amanda De La Garza said, she is clear of the disease.

Amanda’s brother, Joe De La Garza Jr., said the family originally thought that their father died of natural causes before an autopsy done by the Center for Disease Control, which they received in January, showed that his father also contacted psittacosis and died from it.

An animal supplier near Waco, Rainbow Exotics, Inc., has also been named in the lawsuit, which the family believes supplied PetSmart with the bird.