Denver-based Zen Magnets complied with federal safety regulators’ order to get rid of $40,000 worth of magnetic balls that had been the subject of a recall by conducting a mass burning, mock funeral and tongue-in-cheek eulogy Wednesday.

The company rented an industrial oven from Metal Treating & Research Co., to dispose of the almost half-million magnetic balls, each about the size of a BB.

The magnetic spheres can be molded together into sculptures or artistic designs, but the Consumer Product Safety Commission maintains the product is dangerous to children, who may swallow them. If two or more balls are swallowed, they can attract, pinching and destroying intestinal tissue.

The burning at Metal Treating & Research Co., in Denver, was accompanied by a eulogy read by Eric Sigurdson, Zen’s operations manager in which he mourned what the rare earth balls could have become had they been marketed.

“Truly, as we bid fond farewell to these magnets, we also mourn the smothered flame of insight and creativity they could have reflected from many a human soul for many years to come,” he said.

The route to destruction began in 2012, when the CPSC called upon 13 companies not to manufacture, import or distribute the spheres.

“Some companies were cooperative, others were not,” said Scott Wolfson, a CPSC spokesman. “We filed lawsuits against those and, with the rest, were able to achieve recalls, with Zen Magnets the only company that didn’t agree to settle.”

A tangle of legal proceedings followed, and in 2014, the commission banned the magnets.

Zen, which had purchased about 917,000 of the spheres from Star Networks shortly before the manufacturer agreed to a recall as part of a deal with the CPSC, was mired in a legal battle that came to a head in 2016.

U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello ruled that Zen Magnets violated the Consumer Product Safety Act when it resold the magnets, and ordered Zen to refund consumers who had purchased the magnets and to destroy any remaining inventory.

“If I had known they were a risk when they offered them to us, I wouldn’t have accepted them,” said Zen Magnets founder and owner Shihan Qu.

It was difficult to find a method for disposal that the CPSC would accept.

“We were in discussion with the Colorado School of Mines. They would have accepted a donation, but the CPSC got involved” and insisted on a lot of red tape, he said. “They bailed out.”

Wolfson said he couldn’t comment on discussions between Zen and his agency.

Last year, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the ban, and Zen is selling them.

Qu, who has said he never marketed the magnets to children, may yet find himself barred from selling the product.

The CPSC staff continues legal action pursuing a total recall of Zen’s existing magnets, Wolfson said.

And the agency is also considering what it must do to address concerns that the appellate court raised in its ruling in order to reinstate a ban.