There are a couple of minor items touching on the pet food recall that I found interesting. In the first it’s being reported that Menu Foods harassed pet owners who had retained attorneys:
The pet food company that recalled six million cans of contaminated dog and cat food repeatedly made harassing phone calls to pet owners who had lawyers and said they didn’t want to talk, even after a judge ordered the firm to leave them alone, court records show.
Lawyers from six of the more than 80 law firms representing clients who believe their pets were harmed by Menu’s pet food brought a motion Wednesday in a N.J. federal court seeking to stop Menu from “bullying” people who had called the company since the recall was announced two and a half months ago.
U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman in Camden, New Jersey agreed with the individuals.
“It’s one thing for two people to sit down at the table and voluntarily agree to settle their case, it’s another thing to harass people on weekends through automated phone calls,” Hillman said to Edward Ruff of Pretzel & Stouffer, Menu’s lawyer.
Hillman entered a consent degree on Wednesday ordering Menu Foods to have no contact with anyone who believes their animal was injured by its product without a lawyer being involved.
Giving Menu Foods the greatest possible benefit of the doubt this sounds pretty hamhanded to me.
In the other piece an op-ed writer makes an extremely shrewd observation—in all likelihood the best way to put pressure on China is not via the federal government but through Wal-Mart:
As a system severely altered by the global economy, it has grown farther removed not only from our heartland, but from U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration food-safety standards. Surprisingly, it’s also a system that is heavily influenced by Wal-Mart, the world’s largest company and the nation’s number-one grocer. Through the years, Wal-Mart has quietly but forcefully opposed additional food-safety regulations and port inspections as well as country-of-origin labeling. It has put corporate profits over its customers’ safety time and time again — a dangerous combination not only to the direction of the American food system but to the health and safety of the American consumer.
Most people are not aware of the massive effect that the world’s largest company has on the American food supply. As noted by Charles Fishman in his book “The Wal-Mart Effect,†Wal-Mart is China’s eighth-largest trading partner. In 2004, almost 10 percent of everything imported to the United States from China was imported by Wal-Mart. With the way Wal-Mart pushes its suppliers to do business at the lowest possible cost, systems are poorly regulated and done on the cheap.
Clearly, Wal-Mart’s taking the lead in this matter would simultaneously be good corporate citizenship and good business—when all is said and done Wal-Mart will probably have been noticeably injured by the pet food recall. But there is an old fable about geese and golden eggs and China certainly is that for Wal-Mart.
Given the amount of dollars that rides on this, I can’t imagine that they are not already putting pressure on China, If only to cover their own liability. Sometimes, the overt pressure is the less effective.
Not only am I suffering the tragedy of seeing my beloved cat go through the final phases of terminal renal failure caused by Special Kitty, a Menu Food product, bought at Wal Mart, but I am receiving harassing phone calls from the Menu lawyers, and have been told by Wal Mart that this pet food is not the cause of his renal failure. I hope someone has to pay for my loss and pain.
Not only am I suffering through the terminal failure of my beloved cat’s kidneys due to Menu Food’s Special Kitty, but I am being harassed by the Menu Food’s lawyers and being told by Wal Mart. where I bought Special Kitty, that it is not the cause of his renal failure. I hope someone has to pay for my eventual loss and the pain I am having to suffer through due to the negligence of these two parties.
Wow! This is alarming! I have a spitz and I am so thankful we have stopped buying commercial dog food and started making our own homemade dog food instead. This only goes to prove that we can never be too sure with anything these days. What is safe and healthy one minute could be poisonous and cancerous the next.
Thanks for this entry!
Jolie