Wal-Mart's Pet Food "UnRecall"

Menu Foods announced their pet food recall (to investors) 158 days ago.

Apparently some consumers have reported that their dogs became ill after eating a couple different pet treats that were not part of the Menu Foods recall, so Wal-Mart took matters into their own hands and pulled the items from the shelves.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. quietly stopped selling two brands of dog treats in July, after customers voiced concerns that the Chinese products may have caused their pets to fall ill, but no recall has been announced, a company spokeswoman confirmed.

The world's largest retailer started pulling Chicken Jerky Strips from Import-Pingyang Pet Product Co. and Chicken Jerky from Shanghai Bestro Trading on July 26, spokeswoman Deisha Galberth said late Monday.

Wal-Mart also placed a computerized block on all cash registers to prevent workers from selling the products, Galberth said.

"When we took it off shelves at the end of July, we pulled it based on the customer feedback so we could do testing prior to announcing anything publicly," Galberth said. "That's why did not make a public announcement — it was still going through the testing process."

There is no word yet on what was making the pets sick, if there is any connection at all, but based on the fact the pet treats were made in China, my bet is that they find something you would not normally find in any food product, pet or human.

If they pulled these items fro mthe shelves on July 26th, why are we just hearing about it now? Did they pull a Menu Foods and inform investors first? Why the secrecy?