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Woman not biting in mouse head case
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[October 05, 2007]
LEHI, Utah (AP) -- An Arkansas company is offering $100 to a Utah woman who found a severed mouse head in a can of green beans if she pledges not to take legal action, but she's not biting. The letter from Allens Inc. of Siloam Springs, Ark., describes it as a "gesture of goodwill." Marianne Watson isn't interested.
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 "I won't sign it under any circumstances," she said.
Watson, 49, said she never wanted to take legal action.
She said she wants to "put enough media attention on them that they either withdraw those cans or do something other than what they're trying to do, which is shut me up."
Watson was cooking lunch for two sons Sunday when she said she found a severed mouse head in a can of Allens Cut Green Beans, which had been purchased at a Wal-Mart store in American Fork. Nothing was eaten.
Allens spokesman James Phillips said the mouse probably was picked up during the harvest and did not originate in the canning factory. He called it an isolated incident.
"We apologize as much as we can, but we also do everything known from a technology standpoint and personnel standpoint to prevent it from happening," he said. "But inevitably, occasionally, things like this occur."
A recall is not necessary, Phillips said Thursday.
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 "This would not reach the level of exposing people to illness because the product is rendered commercially sterile," he said in a phone interview. "Every can is cooked to a predetermined temperature and time."
Watson said she may have the mouse remnants and green beans tested. She has refused to return them to the company.
"I was thankful I had a little soup earlier because I couldn't eat after seeing that," she said.
[Associated Press]
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