Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

We recently purchased a "Da Bird" cat toy, as it was recommended on the ASPCA website. We've had the toy for about 1 week and used it approximately a dozen times with our two 1.5 year old cats. We were initially very pleased with the toy - our cats loved it and we were excited to find a simple and affordable toy that provided so much enjoyment and exercise. However, last night as I was using Da Bird with our cats, I felt some sharp fibrous needles on my hand where I was holding the wand. Upon closer inspection it was apparent that the wand, made of fiberglass, was splintering and had left hundreds of shards of fiberglass in the palm of my hand and fingertips. The shards are painful and tiny. Removal was only possible with tweezers and a flashlight, even then only the largest shards could be extracted from my hand. Needless to say, we were quite alarmed by the hazard Da Bird was causing, not only to humans, but more seriously, to our cats. One of our cats is especially fond of playing with and chewing on the wand end of other `fishing pole' type cat toys we have had. Had he gotten a paw or his mouth on the splintering fiberglass wand, he would have been in serious danger. Upon doing a simple Google search of "Da Bird fiberglass splinter" we came across several product review sites and online cat forums where people had suffered from the fiberglass splinters, however these warnings are not obvious when buying the item for the first time. Given that Da Bird's manufacturer, Go Cat, prides itself on "Quality interactive cat toys handcrafted in the USA", we highly recommend that they issue a warning to resellers of the toy, post a warning on their website and immediately change to a more safe and durable material to prevent serious injuries to cats and humans. We have also contacted the ASPCA and Go-Cat (the maker) in hopes that they will take steps to improve the safety of this product.