Pack of Chihuahuas in Hostile Takeover of Taco Bell

Feral Canines Believed to Be Escapees from L.A. Pound

A pack of feral Chihuahuas that probably escaped from Los Angeles has teamed up with a Wall Street investment bank to launch a hostile takeover of Yum! Brands, Inc. The company, which is based in Louisville, Kentucky and had revenues of $7.7 billion last year, owns Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Long John Silver's and Taco Bell.

"It would appear that if they are successful, they will do sort of a reverse spin-off in which they keep Taco Bell and launch all the other restaurant brands as a separate company," said Portnoy Compton, an analyst at Raymond James who follows the restaurant industry.
Yum! Brands' board of directors rejected yesterday the Chihuahua offer to acquire the company. It also said it had appointed a committee to study adoption of a "poison pill" provision that would make a takeover difficult.

Burger & Burger, a boutique investment banking group which is leading the Chihuahuas' takeover attempt, said that its client intends to pursue the takeover and would challenge in court any poison pill provision.

The financial press has speculated that the Chihuahuas want to gain control of Taco Bell in order to prevent a return of the advertising campaign in which a Chihuahua appears as a spokesman for the restaurant chain, which features low-priced, less than authentic Mexican food.

Compton disputed the ad hypothesis. "I've been told that the Chihuahuas loved the ad campaign and if anything they want to bring it back and give it greater emphasis," he said.

The ad campaign was temporarily halted after anonymous postings on Internet web sites claimed that dog meat derived from German Shepherds, Rotweilers and Doberman Pincers was used instead of beef in the all-beef tacos served at Taco Bell. Late night comedians then began making jokes about the meat in Taco Bell tacos.

Yum! Brands took out full-page ads in major national newspapers, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, to deny the reports. The ads featured the slogan "We haven't gone to the dogs." The company also quietly dropped for a few months the ads featuring the Chihuahua. The ads, which dramatically increased traffic through the restaurants, recently returned to television stations in selected markets where German Shepherds, Rotweilers and Doberman Pincers aren't popular breeds.

Little is known about the pack of feral takeover Chihuahuas, whose shadowy leader is known as "Chollo Grande."

They first came to Wall Street's attention when they began shopping for an investment bank to represent them and traveled in a white stretch limousine with a footman dressed in black. At each stop, a group of Chihuahuas, estimated to number from two to three dozen, would tumble from the limo, uttering their trademark yaps. They would scramble into the office building and take a single elevator to their appointment.

Their appearances soon began to attract large sidewalk crowds that would chant, "Chollo, Chollo, Chollo." It was never clear which of the dogs was Chollo. Nor was it clear who was the human liaison between the dogs and bankers during their business meetings.
The feral Chihuahuas first gained national prominence after Los Angeles health officials raided a 40-acre property north of Los Angeles and confiscated nearly 200 of the dogs whose owner had let them run wild and form feral, undomesticated packs that fought with one another.

The dogs were hauled off to county animal shelters and a court fight began between competing Chihuahua rescue groups. One group said that most the the dogs were so wild they should be euthanized, while the other said good homes should be found for all of them.

In the midst of the court battle, staff members at the animal sheltered noticed during a routine count that some of the little dogs might be missing. An investigation turned up nothing and some county officials suggested that perhaps none of the dogs had disappeared because it was so hard to count them as they swarmed about.

About a month after the possible escape, the white stretch limousine filled with boisterous Chihuahuas began cruising the canyons of Wall Street seeking to make a deal to acquire Yum! Brands. July 25, 2003

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