If you or your child became ill after visiting the 2025 Arizona State Fair petting zoo, our E. coli lawyers can review whether you have a claim. You do not need a confirmed diagnosis or a complete set of records before contacting us. The fair ran September 19 through October 26, 2025 at the fairgrounds on West McDowell Road in Phoenix.
Investigators with the Maricopa County Department of Public Health and the Arizona Department of Health Services traced a Shiga toxin-producing E. coli outbreak to that petting zoo. When the county closed its investigation on January 6, 2026, the final count was 18 confirmed or probable cases, 16 of them children.
Ron Simon & Associates and Gallagher & Kennedy filed the first lawsuit over this outbreak. A closed public-health investigation does not by itself decide whether a family can still bring a claim. Special notice and filing rules may apply because the fair is a state entity, so an attorney should review your family’s dates.
Why a Petting Zoo Spreads E. coli
Healthy farm animals carry E. coli in their gut and shed it in their manure, so the animal doesn’t have to look sick for a child to get sick. CDC’s guidance for petting zoos and animal exhibits is to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water immediately after touching farm animals or anything in the habitat, to avoid touching your mouth before washing, and for adults to supervise hand washing for children under 5 years of age. CDC treats hand sanitizer as the fallback for when soap and running water aren’t readily available, not as the primary control.
That’s the gap Ron Simon & Associates alleges existed at the 2025 fair. Families who spoke to reporters described the same sequence over and over: pet the pigs and goats, then go get food.
It didn’t used to work this way in Arizona. Will Humble, a former director of the state health department, wrote in December 2025 that for years state health staff visited the fair’s petting zoo before opening day to make sure it had barriers, limits on how many kids could be inside, hand-washing sinks with soap and running water at the entrance and exit, and a staff monitor making sure children washed on the way out. That practice, he wrote, appears to have been dropped. “The 2025 outbreak demonstrates that Arizona can’t rely on safety practices that disappear when health department leadership changes.”
How Many People Got Sick, and When the Public Was Told
Maricopa County’s final accounting came on January 6, 2026, when it closed the investigation and confirmed the petting zoo as the source: 18 confirmed or probable cases, 16 of them children. County officials said 13 of the 18 cases reported attending the Arizona State Fair. State health officials also acknowledged a rise in HUS hospitalizations alongside the increase in E. coli cases in fall 2025.
The public learned most of that late. On November 13, 2025 the state health department sent a healthcare advisory to providers about a two-fold increase in E. coli cases for October, without naming the fair publicly. County lab records that became public later showed genetic test results, primarily dated that same day, had already matched at least 11 cases to a single strain, weeks before the county’s January confirmation. State health officials have defended the timeline. A department spokesperson said in December 2025 that the agency “categorically disagrees” that it withheld critical information, and that there was no ongoing risk once the fair had ended.
In the gap, families found each other. Parker’s Promise, a nonprofit that supports families affected by HUS, was contacted by parents at Phoenix Children’s Hospital in early November, and by late November told reporters it had heard from nearly 200 people. Reports to a nonprofit are not confirmed cases, and we’re not presenting them as the outbreak’s size. Not appearing in an official case count does not by itself rule out a claim.
Who Ran the Petting Zoo
The petting zoo was operated for the fair by Great American Entertainment, a company in Stephenville, Texas that had run the attraction for the past 15 years, according to The Arizona Republic. The Republic also reports that records connect the company to a 2005 E. coli outbreak at a fair in Fresno, California that left six children hospitalized. The company is not a defendant in the lawsuit and did not respond to reporters’ requests for comment.
The fair’s spokesperson told reporters that its protocols remained unchanged from previous years, and that hand-washing stations and restrooms existed inside the agriculture building that housed the petting zoo, though they were not a dedicated part of the exhibit.
Why HUS Is the Injury That Changes These Cases
Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) is a serious complication of STEC infection that can cause kidney failure and lasting health problems. CDC says it is most common among children younger than 5 who have diarrhea. For a child with HUS, an attorney considers potential future care as well as the initial hospital stay, based on the treating doctors’ findings.
First Lawsuit Filed Over the 2025 Fair Outbreak
On August 3, 2026, Ron Simon & Associates, together with Phoenix firm Gallagher & Kennedy, P.A., filed the first lawsuit over this outbreak in the Superior Court of Arizona in and for Maricopa County. The complaint names the State of Arizona and the Arizona State Fair as defendants, and it was brought on behalf of a six-year-old boy identified by the initials J.L.
Ron Simon & Associates alleges that J.L. and his mother visited the fairgrounds on October 26, 2025, the final day of the fair, and spent time in the petting zoo area handling pot-bellied pigs and goats before going to get food. The firm alleges that no readily available hand-washing station was provided in the petting area, only hand sanitizer, which the family used.
Within three days J.L. developed bloody diarrhea, fever, and severe abdominal pain. A stool specimen taken at Phoenix Children’s Hospital on November 1, 2025 tested positive for Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. By November 4 he had been diagnosed with hemolytic uremic syndrome and Stage 3 acute kidney injury, and he required dialysis, a central line, and admission to the pediatric intensive care unit. He was hospitalized for 21 days. Health officials confirmed that genetic sequencing identified J.L.’s E. coli isolate as a genetic match to the outbreak strain.
Ron Simon & Associates alleges that J.L.’s long-term prognosis remains uncertain and that he faces a significant risk of future kidney failure and a possible transplant as he grows. The firm puts medical expenses to date at more than $453,000, with anticipated lifetime medical costs it estimates could reach $3 million or more.
The suit includes negligence, product-liability and warranty claims. Ron Simon & Associates alleges inadequate warnings and supervision, insufficient hand-washing stations with soap and water, and failures to clean animal enclosures and high-contact surfaces. These are allegations, not court findings. A jury trial has been demanded.
“A six-year-old spent three weeks in the hospital on dialysis. This was preventable.”
Ron Simon, Ron Simon & Associates
Ron Simon told 12News that the family’s ordeal was “life or death for several days during his hospitalization,” and made the point that sanitizer was never going to be enough on its own: “You need someone there with soap and water, not hand sanitizer, because it’s not effective.”
The Arizona State Fair told 12News that the health and safety of its guests is its highest priority, and said it couldn’t discuss the lawsuit further because of the litigation.
This isn’t expected to be the only case. Ron Simon said in August 2026 that the firm represents at least six families whose relatives got E. coli at the State Fair. This also isn’t the firm’s first fair petting zoo case. Ron Simon previously represented a family in the 2019 San Diego County Fair E. coli outbreak.
What Arizona Did After the Outbreak
Both fairgrounds changed what they do. The Legislature didn’t.
The Arizona State Fair dropped its petting zoo for 2026. The fair told the Arizona Republic it has contracted a local vendor to showcase animals and farm life instead, and that the public will not be able to feed or pet the animals. A fair spokesperson said guests can see the exhibit animals and talk with a farmer about farm life, and that “There will not be animal feeding or petting as part of the experience.” The 2026 fair is scheduled for October 1 through November 1, and the fair’s own animal listings now show judged livestock competitions only.
The Maricopa County Fair got there first. Its director confirmed that the April 3 through 12, 2026 fair would run without a petting zoo or pony rides, keeping livestock exhibits behind barriers, with hand-washing stations and signs asking visitors not to touch the animals.
Senate Bill 1082, proposed by Senator John Kavanagh, would have required hand washing or sanitizer, warning signs and supervision at petting zoos, with state inspection authority. It failed in the Senate Natural Resources Committee on February 17, 2026, on a 4 to 4 vote and did not become law. The proposed statewide hand-washing requirement therefore did not take effect.
Your Legal Rights
Medical records, available test results, fair tickets and dated photos can help our team review what happened. A parent does not need to obtain genetic testing or prove the source of the illness before requesting a consultation.
The filing deadline cannot be determined from the outbreak date alone. We can review the facts and dates of your family’s potential claim at no charge.
For background on the infection itself, start with our E. coli lawyer page, and if HUS was part of your child’s diagnosis our HUS lawyer page explains how those claims are built and why they’re valued over a lifetime. This outbreak is tied to a single venue in Phoenix, and our Arizona food poisoning lawyer page covers how claims work here.
Ron Simon & Associates is a food poisoning law firm representing children and families in serious E. coli outbreaks nationwide. Our E. coli lawyers can obtain the health department and hospital records, work with your treating physicians on the kidney injury, and pursue compensation for medical bills, hospitalization, future care, lost wages, and pain and suffering. You pay our law firm nothing unless we recover compensation for you. Results vary by case. Call 1-888-335-4901 for a free consultation.