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CFO sold shares weeks before pet food recall

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 12, 2007

TORONTO - The chief financial officer of Menu Foods sold about half his shares in the company just three weeks before a massive recall of its pet food products, Canadian insider trading reports show.

CFO Mark Wiens sold 14,000 shares for $89,900 on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27. The shares are now worth about $54,000.

"He feels just awful that this link has been made," company spokesman Sam Bornstein said Wednesday.

But Bornstein said Wiens faced a restricted window in which he could sell his shares.

A blackout period related to the company's fourth-quarter results prevented Wiens from trading until Feb. 19, Bornstein said. Wiens sought permission in writing from the CEO to trade then, a standard practice, he said.

Wiens currently owns about 17,000 shares.

Menu Foods began getting calls about sick cats around Feb. 26, but Bornstein said Wiens would not have known about them. The calls didn't cause alarm until a week later.

Wiens called it a "horrible coincidence" in Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper. He did not immediately return phone calls Wednesday, and Bornstein said Wiens didn't want to talk about his shares any more.

On March 16, Menu Foods recalled 60-million cans of dog and cat food after the deaths of 16 pets that ate its products, mostly cats. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said tests indicated the food was contaminated.

Menu Foods was the first of at least six companies to recall pet food and treats made with the tainted Chinese wheat gluten.

[Last modified April 12, 2007, 01:52:10]