If You Must Recall, Please Do So Loudly

Let's say that I am a pet food manufacturer, and some of my products are being linked to outbreaks of salmonella (among people feeding my products to their pets). I announce a recall.

How loudly do you want me to announce that?

Pretty damn loudly, I'd think.

Today's New York Times carries an article by William Neuman, reporting on a frozen-mouse recall. Apparently frozen mice are popular among reptile owners: just thaw and feed (I like snakes and other reptiles, but I am suppressing considerable squeamishness here. May I just say, Ewwww.).

MiceDirect, based in Cleveland GA, sells mice (from "small pinkies" to "jumbo adults"), rats ("pinkies" to "mammoth") and chicks. (Sorry, I'm having another squeam moment here. Deep breath.)

The website currently carries a "Recall Notice: May 2009 - July 23, 2010" hot link right at the top of its home page, but that has not been the case for long.

According to the Times report, "The company's recall notice was not prominently posted on its Web site until Thursday. And neither the company's site nor the F.D.A.'s site gave clear instructions on what to do with mice that customers still had." (emphasis added)

A reptile owner, who "bought 10,500 mice from MiceDirect early this year", when contacted by the Times said that "he had not heard about the recall until a reporter called him Wednesday."

Salmonella linked to MiceDirect was first reported in Great Britain in August 2008, and in the United States in January of this year. A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control said that British officials informed the CDC of the outbreaks in 2009; the FDA (which regulates pet food companies) was also informed.

An FDA spokesperson, on the other hand, said that her agency was "checking to see if it had a record of the 2009 contact from the CDC" and was not told of the American outbreak until May of this year. In early July, officials of both agencies conducted an inspection at MiceDirect, and the FDA informed the company on 21 July that tests of the product and plants had found salmonella. Two days later, the company agreed to a recall.

Don't you think that MiceDirect should have taken a proactive stance after the first, British reports of salmonella?

So do I, especially in light of the fact that, to date, "more than 400 have people have fallen ill there, about two-thirds of them ...children under 10." An epidemiologist at the Health Protection Agency's Center for Infections noted that "although shipments of tainted mice were halted last year, people continue to get sick there.... perhaps because snake owners, unaware of the dangers, continue to use mice kept in their freezers."

Since pet owners have the mice delivered directly to their doors, the company has their contact information. They should have reached out to them immediately, loudly, and persistently.