# 125. The Risks of Librela: What Pet Parents Aren’t Being Told with Attorney Kirk Pope

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/your-natural-dog-with-angela-ardolino-4502573/125-the-risks-of-librela-what-pet-parents-aren-t-being-told-with-attorney-kirk-pope
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/your-natural-dog-with-angela-ardolino-4502573/125-the-risks-of-librela-what-pet-parents-aren-t-being-told-with-attorney-kirk-pope.md
Podcast: [Your Natural Dog with Angela Ardolino](https://stenobird.com/podcast/your-natural-dog-with-angela-ardolino-4502573)
Published: 2026-02-05T08:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://share.transistor.fm/s/c205e1fa
Audio file: https://media.transistor.fm/c205e1fa/c22c0c4e.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/your-natural-dog-with-angela-ardolino-4502573/episodes/125-the-risks-of-librela-what-pet-parents-aren-t-being-told-with-attorney-kirk-pope
Duration seconds: 2729

## Resource

In this episode of Your Natural Dog , Angela Ardolino is joined by attorney Kirk Pope, who is overseeing multi-plaintiff lawsuits against Zoetis over the veterinary drug Librela. Kirk shares his personal story of losing his own dog after a Librela injection and explains why he believes pet parents were not given the information needed to make an informed decision. Together, Angela and Kirk unpack how veterinary pharmaceuticals are approved, marketed, and incentivized, why animals are treated as property under the law, and what limited legal recourse pet parents actually have when a drug harms or kills their dog. Episode Recap: Angela introduces the episode and explains why Librela has become a major concern, citing FDA warning letters, reported adverse events, and the lack of meaningful repercussions when animal drugs cause harm to our pets, because they are seen as merely property. (00:00) Kirk Pope introduces himself as an attorney now overseeing litigation against Zoetis, after losing his dog to Librela, discussing the problem with financial incentives being attached to vets prescribing pharmaceuticals. (02:16) Angela asks what led Kirk to take legal action, he shares how at the time of his dog’s injection, U.S. warnings for Librela listed only UTIs and injection-site reactions, with no mention of neurological or fatal risks (05:06) Kirk shares how Zoetis know that adverse event data had emerged internationally before U.S. disclosure, Librela had more extensive warnings in other countries, and why failing to warn pet parents in the U.S. constitutes a fraudulent omission by Zoetis. (10:35) Kirk explains why recalls are almost always voluntary and why the FDA cannot easily force a drug like Librela off the market, and the aim of his multi-plaintiff lawsuits against Zo…

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