Are Merrick’s less-than-stellar past recall efforts playing out again?

[Update Sunday, 1/30: Merrick has finally gotten around to posting the recall on their website, including putting it prominently on their home page, and tweeting about it as well. Better late than never, but still ... ]

No, a company doesn’t have to prominently note a recall on its website, but I gotta tell you I don’t get a warm and fuzzy feeling that makes me want to trust those companies that do not.

Like … Merrick, which seems to have recalled a product according to the FDA but no sign of a problem on its website as of this writing.

From Therese at PetSitUSA, who never sleeps and never misses a dump-and-run, recall, or, in this case, what seems to be a “we won’t tell you because we don’t have to” recall:

From the FDA website, a new notice about a pet food recall from Merrick. Notice the date on the release is 2010, although on the FDA page it has 2011. I don’t see the recall notice on the Merrick website for last year, and I don’t remember one for this product last year, so I’m assuming it’s a new one. I’ve left messages for Merrick and the FDA. If either of them return my call or fix the info online, I’ll be sure to post it here. You’ll find the Merrick pet food recall notice on the FDA website. There’s nothing on the Merrick Pet Care website yet:

MERRICK PET CARE RECALLS JR TEXAS TAFFY PET TREAT (ITEM # 27077, ALL LOTS UP TO AND INCLUDING 10364) BECAUSE OF POSSIBLE SALMONELLA HEALTH RISK

FOR IMMIDIATE RELEASE – January 28, 2010 – Merrick Pet Care, Inc. of Amarillo, Texas is recalling the Jr. Texas Taffy pet treat (ITEM # 27077, UPC # 02280827077, All Lots up to and including 10364) because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. Merrick Pet Care has made the decision to recall all Jr. Texas Taffy pet treats in the abundance of caution.

Judging from Merrick’s past behavior, I’d put my money on the FDA putting 2010 instead of 2011 on the release (along with misspelling “immidiate”), especially since “2011? is noted on the bottom of the FDA web page.  After all, Merrick is not a company that has shown much regard for its customers — much less an “abundance of caution” — in the past. But of course, if I’m wrong, I’ll correct and blame some anonymous clerk at the FDA.

In the meantime, if you have this product, don’t handle it or give it to your pets until this discrepancy is resolved.

View the original article here