A family are suing a pet shop after their son died from being bitten by a rat his grandma bought.
Aidan Pankey, 10, died after he contracted rat-bite fever from the pet which was bought from Petco in San Diego in 2013.
Aidan already had one female rat and wanted to get a male to 'marry' her.
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The youngster went to Petco with his grandmother who helped him pick out Alex the rat.
Two weeks after buying the rat Aidan fell ill and died just two days later. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that his death was caused by rat-bite fever after handling Alex.
Credit: Fox 5
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Rat-bite fever can be caught from a number of rodents including rats, gerbils and mice. As well it getting it from scratches and bites, people can also contract it just from handling infected animals or from drinking or eating something contaminated with the bacteria.
The illness can be treated and cured with antibiotics if doctors are alerted quickly enough; and deaths are usually quite rare.
After the tragedy of losing Aidan, the Pankey family filed a law suit in February 2014, and claim that the pet-shop-chain doesn't test potentially sick rats before selling them.
The trial, which opened on Wednesday, saw the family's lawyers argue that Petco knew that it was selling rats that could be infected, and that it knew people were getting ill but didn't do anything to address the situation.
Credit: PA
Aidan's dad, Andrew, told CBS 8: "I'm fighting this case to protect some children because I don't want this to happen to another family. I still talk to him, tell him I love him - that daddy is not going give up."
In response to the allegations that the company knew some rats were infected but didn't tell customers, Petco's lawyers responded by saying that there's no way the company would be able to check every single one of the millions of rat its sells.
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Before adding that customers are handed information about the dangers of buying a rat within the general instructions, Inside Edition reports.
Petco's lawyers also pointed out that the company cannot 'change the nature of an animal'.
Aidan's mum, Vanessa Sauer, previously sued the company, but settled before it went to trial.
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