A family from Corpus Christi, Texas filed a suit in Nueces County District Court against national pet chain PetSmart after they contracted parrot fever from a diseased cockatiel bought from one of their stores.

Joe De La Garza, 63, died of the disease in October 2006, less than a month after his daughter Amanda bought the cockatiel from PetSmart. Things didn’t end here. Amanda spent weeks in the hospital after she fell into coma because of the same disease. Fortunately, she has since recovered.

Psittacosis is an infectious disease usually transmitted to humans from birds in the parrot family, turkeys and pigeons. It is caused by a bacterium called Chlamydia psittaci. The disease is usually spread by inhaling dust from dried droppings from bird cages and by handling infected birds in slaughterhouses. Human-to human spread has not been reported so far. The bad news is that waste material in the birdcage may remain infectious for weeks.

The symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, chills, and sometimes pneumonia. The disease may be severe, and result in death, especially in untreated older people.

Jennifer Ericsson, a representative for PetSmart underlined the fact that people can hardly contract parrot fever, “particularly when good hygiene practices are followed,” the Houston Chronicle quotes her. Also, birds are treated and checked for symptoms by vendors for 15 days before they get to PetSmart stores.

Unfortunately, this is not the first suit PetSmart is facing. In May 2005, three people died after receiving organs infected with a rodent virus that originated with a hamster purchased from a local PetSmart store.

The lawyer of De La Garza’s family, Ron Franklin said people should be able to buy any pet they like without fearing for their lives.