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This is an e-mail from a visitor to the Mars.com Contact Us:

Date: 4/14/2008 1:54:51 AM

Subject: Product satisfaction question

First name: Mac

Last name: Mccall

E-mail: pbmccall@hotmail.com

Country: United States

Phone:

Message:
To the Mars Family! Shame on you !!! Bad decision … Interesting PR move… NOT GOOD! It would be nice to take any pet product that is imperfect and donate that instead of destroying it …. write that off as a deduction to cover some of the expenses…Now you have a Hot Potato that could have been avoided, a cost cutting decision by one of your accountants. This is what happens when you have marketing people not in the decision circle with the accountants! Relocate this executive to another position, it is obvious he does not know his ramifications of his decisions “and power position” results. Team work OK! Good Luck rebuilding you past Great reputation that is now more than tarnished! re: Attachment below: Residents Donate Pet Food To Animal Shelter After Mars Stop Donations Monday, March 10, 2008 South Carolina residents have chipped in to donate hundreds of bags of pet food to the Anderson County animal shelter. Mars, Inc., maker of Pedigree pet food, told the shelter it was ending gifts of pet food to their shelter. Mars, Inc. was the shelter’s main primary food supplier, and around 300 pets have been affected by this stop in donations. The shelter was running low on pet food and asked the community for help. Numerous people brought in bags of pet food, and some even braved bad weather to bring in their donations. The shelter manager said she is uncertain why Mars, Inc. decided to stop donating pet food, and unless the shelter can find another corporate sponsor, the shelter will need to rely on the community for help. She was also told that the decision to cut back on the food donation program was company wide and other shelters were affected. Shelter employee Bonnie Wulff said, “We’ve had a lot of people come in and they’re emotional as well, just a few people who’ve been teary eyed, just want to come in and donate. They care as much about ‘em as we do.” Source: WYFF4, WSPA Share or Email This Read more from this blogger

Gee….that makes so much sense….dogs and cats can go without food for six weeks…yeah right.

Mars is showing its contempt of the public with its spurious claims of miscommunication.

What idiots!!

“The outbreak of contamination in pet foods that killed hundreds and perhaps thousands of cats and dogs last year in the USA wasn’t the first such incident, veterinary pathologists have determined.

An outbreak in 2004 that also involved pet foods contaminated with industrial chemicals sickened more than 6,000 dogs and a smaller number of cats across Asia.

Kidney failure in the animals was linked to Pedigree dog foods and Whiskas cat foods manufactured in Thailand by Mars Inc. Thousands of pets died, according to Asian media reports at the time.”

http://www.usatoday.com/news/n.....food_N.htm

Some beancounter must have figured out that donating $1.00 per bag sold (plus any other donations that people would send directly to Pedigree) is cheaper than providing food to shelters, even after the advertising is factored in. That “transition period” is ominous.

~The Lioness

Yes, I definitely want to know what Pedigee has done with all the monetary donations? Does any shelter actually receive the donation or that money has been used to pay bonus to the company’s CEO, CFO, C-whatever?

BTaylor