Welcome to the Party, Hartz.

Good Evening, Readers.

We at Broken Hartz are not in the habit of posting twice a day, but our recent exposé seems to have finally caught the attention of Hartz.

Kudos to Rite Aid Senior Counsel, who managed to figure out how to send email attachments today after getting some help from our affiliate. Due to this, Hartz has officially gone into damage-control mode.

The first step was the Hartz Press Releases page. You may remember we posted about this at the launch of our current exposé.

At the time of that report, the EPA Flea & Tick Topical Advisory Update (this link functioned until 2/21/12) still took you to the phony article Hartz provided as “factual” information about their dangerous products.

We must confess, we at Broken Hartz always assumed Hartz would be forced to grudgingly post an actual EPA Advisory Update once being called out on this little faux pas, but thats not how Hartz rolls.

Today, Hartz went ahead and removed the “broken” EPA Advisory link from their Press Releases page and deleted the bogus EPA Advisory article we had uncovered, showing once again what they are truly committed to: lies.

Well, the link may be gone, but the screen shot isn’t.

Thank you, Hartz. You make this so easy.

More to come.

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UPDATE: WE KNOW YOU’RE WATCHING, HARTZ.

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At 10:09EST on 2/22/12, a Broken Hartz affiliate managed to unearth the Hartz.com phony EPA article yet again. Note the time-stamp in the bottom-right of the image.

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Within 20 minutes, the discovery was deleted by Hartz. Again, note the time-stamp.

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In true Hartz fashion, they still didn’t manage to clean up the whole mess. The Press Releases page for this particular version of the Hartz.com website functioned for a couple of weeks before Hartz figured it out.

This version of Hartz' Press Releases page functioned for a couple of weeks before Hartz finally saw our little update to this post. See the above link for a screenshot of the page before they covered it up.

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As you may have guessed, it is no coincidence that Hartz noticed this error so quickly after the Broken Hartz affiliate had uncovered it. Clearly, Hartz has become very interested in the comings and goings of Broken Hartz affiliates on their websites.

Rite Aid Corporation Still in Bed with Hartz

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Click this link for the previous article in our Hartz “Executive Summary” exposé: Hartz Claims Advantage Doesn’t Have FDA Approved Drugs

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Until now, Broken Hartz had not revealed Rite Aid Corporation as being the distributor involved in the particular case we’ve been discussing. This was done to allow Rite Aid time to assess the information provided by our affiliate and determine its position in this matter.

Yesterday (2/20/12), Rite Aid responded with a clear desire to continue its unethical business partnership with Hartz Mountain Corporation. Given Rite Aid’s unique history with Hartz, this decision comes as no surprise.

Rite Aid Corporation is widely-accepted as one of the most corrupt corporations in the country. The Company seems to have an endless file of lawsuits and general grievances from the public as well as its employees. They have been known to sell expired condoms, baby formula and infant medications. Given their lack of concern for human life, it’s no wonder this unscrupulous corporation exhibits no regard for animal safety. This is very concerning to our affiliate because there is good reason to suspect Rite Aid sold an anomalous version of the Hartz product purchased.

In the April 18, 2000 issue of Fortune Magazine, the Rite Aid board of directors was named one of the six worst in the United States and do you know who happened to be on that board? Mr. Leonard Stern.

In case our readers are unaware, Leonard Stern’s father founded Hartz Mountain Corporation. Leonard took over the business in 1959 and was the head of Hartz until 2000. Leonard Stern was also on the Rite Aid Board of Directors from the mid-nineties to 2001.

Mr. Stern was fiercely engaged in his role as a board member of Rite Aid when the drugstore chain was involved in shady accounting practices, including overstating net income by $1 billion over two years. Mr. Stern was also named in a class action in which investors claimed that he and other directors had breached their fiduciary duty to shareholders. The company settled in 2000.

In 1999, Kevin Mann (the son of Rite Aid’s original founder and former Executive Vice President) alleged Leonard Stern used his influence to increase shelf space in Rite Aid stores for Hartz’ pet products at the expense of competitors. Rite Aid Corporation settled that suit in 1999 for $11 million. Companies don’t just settle for $11 million and we at Broken Hartz take this as a clear admission of guilt.

Mr. Stern maintained his position on Rite Aid’s board until resigning of his own accord in late 2001. Current members of Rite Aid’s board served with Leonard Stern and we have no doubt Rite Aid and Hartz are still close partners. This is backed up by our own investigation of all local Rite Aids in our area. None of these stores carry any pesticide products other than Hartz. In fact, these locations typically carried half-an-aisle of Hartz products.

Our affiliate had become aware of this interesting relationship between Hartz and Rite Aid during correspondence with the Company, but chose to keep silent about this detail and see how Rite Aid behaved when presented with irrefutable evidence of their beloved manufacturer’s unscrupulous behavior.

To say Rite Aid’s Senior Counsel completely underestimated our affiliate and botched this particular case wherever possible would be an understatement. He and Rite Aid’s board dismissed our affiliate and tried to excuse themselves from the matter, unconscionably denying their own Code of Ethics document, neglecting to review the solid information provided by the affiliate and making the ultimate mistake of sharing Hartz’ “Executive Summary of EPA Evaluation of Pet Spot-On Products”, no doubt imagining the 6 1/2-page document would overwhelm our affiliate.

When presented with our affiliate’s 35-page rebuttal to Hartz’ “Summary” document, Rite Aid’s Senior Counsel decided reading the document would be too much work. Instead, he chose to shoot off a reckless, poorly-constructed response (consisting of five sentences and two typos) in such a short time from opening the email he could not possibly have bothered to read the information provided and make any attempt to assess the validity of the affiliate’s argument. If he had, he surely would not have dared to respond in the manner he did.

A quick, ten minute internet search is all it took to unearth the links, concerning Rite Aid, found below. You’ll find cases of racial and religious discrimination, consumer fraud,  disability discrimination, improper treatment of workers, unpaid overtime and even Rite Aid’s attempt to bully a terminally-ill, 77 year old Korean War Veteran over some forgotten sardines.

• The Rite Aid Sucks Blog
• Some Less-Than-Stellar Reviews of Rite Aid
• Rite Aid and NYPD Embarrass and Arrest Innocent Woman
• War Vet Sued by Rite Aid Over Misunderstanding
• Rite Aid Religious Discrimination Suit (for whatever reason, you may need to click this link more than once)
• Rite Aid Disability Discrimination Suit
• Consumer Fraud One
• Rite Aid Tries to Avoid Paying Overtime
• Consumer Fraud Two
• Rite Aid Employee Awarded More Than $8 Million for Wrongful Termination
• Rite Aid Fails to Protect Patient Info
• Rite Aid Racial Discrimination (for whatever reason, you may need to click this link more than once)

This list could go on and on, but we at Broken Hartz think the point has been made. Sorry, Rite Aid Senior Counsel. It seems like you really screwed up this one.

Maybe you should stick to riding your ATV.

We may get into Rite Aid more in the future, and will also be updating previous posts to mention Rite Aid specifically, but we’ll get back to Hartz in our next post.

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Click this link for the next article in our Hartz “Executive Summary” exposé: More Fun with Charts!

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Hartz Claims Advantage Doesn’t Have FDA Approved Drugs

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Click this link for the previous article in our Hartz “Executive Summary” exposé: Fun with Charts!

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We have challenged Hartz’ claims of being committed to providing factual information and also shed some light on the false nature of their charts.

Now we’re ready to tackle a brazen lie Hartz makes in their infamous Executive Summary of EPA Evaluation of Pet Spot On Products. Page 5, Paragraph 1, Sentence 3:

“Frontline® and Advantage® are NOT prescription products nor are they registered with the FDA.”

This is inaccurate, but first additional information and clarification is necessary.

Prior to our Broken Hartz affiliates’ email to the distributor involved in this case Rite Aid Corporation, on 1/21/12, they had found some resources citing Frontline as being FDA approved. We are unable to substantiate Frontline’s FDA status. Since the product recommended by the Broken Hartz affiliates’ Vet was Advantage, we see no harm in removing Frontline from the equation.

Moving on, we have seen this argument from Hartz before. They try to confuse the public, using the fact not all Advantage products are FDA approved. We will not bother listing every product in the Advantage family that has received the distinction of being FDA approved to point out the false nature of Hartz’ statement, but it’s appropriate to list:

ADVANTAGE MULTI for Cats: NADA 141-254 (Active Ingredients: imidacloprid and moxidectin)
– Approval Document

ADVANTAGE MULTI for Dogs: NADA 141-251 (Active Ingredients: imidacloprid and moxidectin)
– Approval Document

This is a screen capture from the FDA’s PowerPoint titled “What You Need to Know: Approved vs. Unapproved Animal Drugs”.

Actually, Advantage isn’t the only flea control product line to have FDA approved products. Here are some more examples of FDA approved flea control products:

Sentinel Flavor Tabs and Capstar Flea Management System: NADA 141-204 (Active ingredients: nitepyram, lufenuron and milbemycin oxime)

Pro-Spot Solution: NADA 132-789 (Active Ingredient: Fenthion)

Program Suspension: NADA 141-026 (Active Ingredient: Lufenron)

Revolution: NADA 141-152 (Active Ingredient:Selamectin)

These FDA approved products are indicated for the treatment of flea infestations and are administered in an identical procedure to Hartz spot-on products.

As it turns out, Hartz was being modest! They refrained from mentioning they have a flea control product on the FDA website, too:

Hartz Flea Control Capsules AKA Zodiac Fleatrol Caps: NADA 141-162 (Active Ingredient:S-methoprene)

Additionally, the Hartz product has a distinction on its page that none of the others do:

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“This product Voluntarily Withdrawn By Sponsor”

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We guess there was a problem. It’s odd, because as an (s-)methoprene only product, this wouldn’t make sense unless, of course, there’s something questionable in the “secret sauce”.

These products and more can be found by searching the Animal Drugs portion of the FDA’s website.

Additionally, Hartz seems to be confused about the finer points of FDA terminology. “Registered with the FDA” does not mean the same thing as “Approved by the FDA”. Many products are “registered” with the FDA, while not all receive approval.

Again, the above linked products, with one notable exception, are approved by the FDA. Furthermore, these products have been FDA approved for years.

More information from the FDA regarding vital differences between FDA-Approved and Unapproved Animal Drugs can be found here.

Please Note: No members of Broken Hartz are Veterinarians. Please speak with a reputable Vet before using any product on your animal(s).

More to come.

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Click this link for the next article in our Hartz “Executive Summary” exposé: Rite Aid Corporation Still in Bed with Hartz

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Hartz Mountain Corporation BBB Fail

It should come as no surprise that if you check out Hartz on BBB.org, they have received an “F”, the lowest possible rating, from the Better Business Bureau.