British distributor defends safety of toy hamster

SAFETY concerns over a hit Christmas gift – the Mr Squiggles Go Go Hamster – are “entirely groundless”, the British distributor said yesterday as it launched a strong defence of the toy.

Character Options said the toy was safe after concerns about levels of the chemical antimony on the electronic pet by the US consumer organisation GoodGuide.

The company said independent testing had taken place and the toys in the Go Go Pet range, sold worldwide as Zhu Zhu pets, “meet and fully comply” with stringent European safety and quality regulations.

Character said it was inaccurate to claim the toy hamster contained more than the permitted levels of antimony.

It said details released by GoodGuide showed the testing it used for the toy were not compliant with EU or US standards.

It added the equipment used – an XRF gun – was not a method of testing compliance that was accepted by the EU or US regulatory bodies.

It said: “Accordingly, the GoodGuide testing process was flawed, the results meaningless and the safety concerns expressed on the basis of these results, entirely groundless.”

Richard King, executive chairman of Character Group, said: “Safety of children has always been the company’s top priority and we take all reasonable steps to ensure that all our products, both those we design and develop under our own brand and those we distribute on behalf of other manufacturers, are safe and fully compliant with all applicable standards.”

“It is unfortunate that the media have picked up a misguided safety statement from a start-up consumer group in the US and have blown it up into front-page news in the UK before taking steps to check the veracity of the statements.”