The PetsitUSA Blog

Posted: 16 Mar 2010 03:29 PM PDT

Three years ago today was the start of the massive Menu Foods pet food recall (that links to the very first post I did about the recall). The recall notice that day was just the first in a nightmarish number of pet food recall notices. And, although the official number of pet deaths due to tainted pet food was in the hundreds, thousands of pets died and others are still suffering with health problems.

As bad as the pet food recall was – and it was bad – I shudder to think of how amazingly worse it could have been if we didn’t have the internet. Within minutes of the first recall announcement, pet owners from all over banned together to make sure others knew what was happening. Sadly, for many, the news came too late, but for others, people they never knew helped saved their pets’ lives.

At Pet Connection this morning, Christie Keith poses the question, “could this happen again?” Unfortunately, the answer is yes. The pet food industry is no safer than it was three years ago.

Menu Foods has taken a unique approach to marking the pet food recall anniversary. They’ve put out a press release announcing that they intend to sell off some of their assets. They’re doing this so they don’t have to pay taxes that will be imposed on trusts beginning in 2011.

Menu Foods Income Fund (the “Fund”) /quotes/comstock/11t!mew.un (CA:MEW.UN 3.10, +0.20, +6.90%) announced today that it has retained BMO Capital Markets as its exclusive financial advisor to assist the Fund in evaluating alternatives to maximize unitholder value. Those alternatives may include a sale of all or a portion of the Fund’s assets or a sale of the Fund itself. While the Board of Directors of the Fund’s administrator (the “Board”) and the management team periodically review various value maximization initiatives, they have decided to formalize and accelerate this process in response to the Canadian Federal Government’s intention to begin to tax income trusts in 2011. The Strategic Alternatives Committee of the Board will supervise this process and make recommendations to the Board.

The evaluation of strategic alternatives is expected to require a period of several months and there can be no assurance that any particular alternative will be pursued or that any transaction will occur.

Way to go with the PR Menu Foods!

For a list of some of the victims of the 2007 pet food recall follow @shadowmice or @kittymadgrrrr on Twitter.