The Purina Pet Food plant in Denver Colorado is facing another lawsuit. The new lawsuit claims this Purina plant’s “cooking process produces highly odiferous emissions.” And the lawsuit claims Purina “has failed to install, maintain, operate, develop, and/or implement adequate odor mitigating strategies, processes, technology, and equipment to control its odorous emissions from the Facility and prevent those odors and emissions from invading the homes and properties of Plaintiffs.”
One of the class lawsuit members states: “The smell causes headaches and nausea, it gets in the house and can also smell clothes of the smell of throw up.” Another Plaintiff states: “It’s like someone barfed in your back yard and then it baked in the sun and then you put a fan on the smell to keep it circulating.”
This Purina plant has been fined twice by Denver authorities for “repeated emissions of noxious odors”; once in 2021 and again in 2024.
In 2023, testing by Denver authorities found “more than double the regulatory threshold for odorous emissions.”
The Denver Purina plant produces dry pet food; “Dog Chow, Cat Chow, Kit n Kaboodle, Alpo, Beneful, Purina ONE Beyond, Purina ONE, and Pro Plan.”
Click Here to read the lawsuit.
From a 2018 interview with a Purina executive regarding the smell at the plant – the employee stated: “Air and heat goes through it, so that’s the smell,” Rotunno said. “If you made dog treats at home, it’s the same way you’d be able to smell those.”
Personal opinion: I’ve cooked a lot of pet food in my home…never once did it smell like vomit baked in the sun.
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
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Kathy English
June 30, 2025 at 11:30 am
I totally agree with the writer. I live 1.5 -2 miles away from the Mechanicsburg, PA USA Purina Plant. We experience the same thing! I thought It was me being overly “sensitive.” Again, I don’t get the intensness as bad as some of the neighbors who live directly across the street from the Mechanicsburg facility, never the less……It is So sicking. Typically it is worse middle of the night early morning after they have been “roasting or cooking the dog food.” I get headaches as well if I have to be outside for any period of time.
Spoookywanluke
June 30, 2025 at 11:53 am
I’ve been past the Blue factory on I70 east of Indianapolis during full production, and while it absolutely reeks (much like a steggles chicken processing factory) it was nowhere near that of vomit baked by the sun!!!!
Sharon Wise
June 30, 2025 at 12:15 pm
I have made plenty of dog treats over my lifespan and all my house smelled like was baked goods. I can’t imagine where in the grocery store the customer could purchase rotten meat, diseased meat, meat that died from euthanasia and road kill. Is there a “special” aisle set aside for product like that, just in case we dog owners would like to create our own dog treats just like Purina? Upon talking to the local meat manager, in the old days, wrappings and containers had to be tossed with the rendered product(outdated meat, eggs, yogurt, dairy products(milk, puddings, butter) and today the plastic containers are included as “rendered” so, the animals are enjoying the toxic waste of the plastic wrappings and styrofoam cooked along with the dead animals that have been dead far too long to produce any health benefits once it is made into dog or cat food. The workers must reek when they arrive back home from their shift bringing with them that stench that has to be releasing off from them and into the lungs of their children as well as throughout their entire home. So, if would like to emulate the dog food companies and create the stuff in your own home, make sure to not unwrap the grossest looking ingredients at the store and perhaps leave them outside in the sun for a few days before cooking. Then, you can say, it’s just like store-bought so it must be good, right?
Aureo
July 1, 2025 at 5:57 am
That sounds pretty bad, but meat from the grocery store for human consumption isn’t that much better. I routinely find hams that taste off, old meat is made into sausages, and I stopped buying chicken breast because I can’t find an animal that will eat it. The problem is the meat industry and pet food industry are giant unaccountable monopolies, deregulation is politically fashionable, and people don’t mind eating bad food: just look at the line around McDonald’s. They can’t make the food bad enough or raise prices high enough to get people to stop eating it.
Sandy M.
June 30, 2025 at 11:05 pm
The saddest part is that they cook decaying ingredients and they are just getting into trouble for not containing the stink. Meanwhile last year they made 12 billion USD in profit from innocent pet lovers who buy their “premium brands” because they trust that their government is watching out for them. The pets that give their unwavering love to their owners have become garbage disposals. How did we get here? More lawsuits by people that have had enough is refreshing. Thank you Susan for sharing this and for all you do.
Gina
August 28, 2025 at 5:20 am
At 5:08 am in South Whitehall Township, PA, I smelled Purina in the air, yet again.