Consumer Group Says Zhu Zhu Pets Unsafe

Say it ain’t so! Are those lovable little Zhu Zhu Pets unsafe? One consumer advocacy group seems to think so.

The maker of the toy, however, defended its product on Saturday against a study by a company called GoodGuide which revealed that high levels of the chemical antimony were found in the product.

GoodGuide says that the Zhu Zhu Pets hamsters are one of the top-selling toys with low safety ratings after finding antimony, which has been tied to various health problems, located on the hair and nose of the toy hamster called “Mr. Squiggles”.

What? How can a toy named Mr. Squiggles be harmful to kids??

The group gave the toy a rating of 5.2 out of 10.

St. Louis-based Cepia LLC, the maker of Zhu Zhu Pets, said in a statement that the toy is safe and has passed intense levels of testing.

The company is attempting to reach GoodGuide to share its data and compare notes.

“I have been in the toy industry for more than 35 years, and being a father of children myself, I would never allow any substandard or unsafe product to hit the shelves,” Russ Hornsby, Cepia’s CEO, said in the statement.

So do the findings of just one advocacy group mean that the toy is harmful? Probably not without seeing more data first. I’m still buying them for MY kids.