Good Grief: MetLife fires Snoopy

FILE - In a Feb. 6, 2008 file photo, mast man Mike Carr, part of the ground crew for the MetLife blimp, gets ready to pull the pin on the helium filled airship at the Bakersfield, Calif., Municipal Airport. MetLife announced Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016 that they will phase out its use of Snoopy and the Peanuts Gang as a brand after more than 30 years. MetLife will be rolling out the new brand globally through 2017. (AP Photo/The Bakersfield Californian, Casey Christie, File)

FILE - In a Feb. 6, 2008 file photo, mast man Mike Carr, part of the ground crew for the MetLife blimp, gets ready to pull the pin on the helium filled airship at the Bakersfield, Calif., Municipal Airport. MetLife announced Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016 that they will phase out its use of Snoopy and the Peanuts Gang as a brand after more than 30 years. MetLife will be rolling out the new brand globally through 2017. (AP Photo/The Bakersfield Californian, Casey Christie, File)

It's not as bad as getting sent back to the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm, but after 31 years, MetLife is parting ways with Snoopy.

MetLife has cut ties with the iconic cartoon beagle as it sheds its life insurance division and as part of a brand change.

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"We knew with all the transformation going on, we needed to rethink how we went to market and how we presented our brand," Steven Kandarian, MetLife chief executive, told The Wall Street Journal.

MetLife has a multiyear contract to use Snoopy and other Peanuts characters that was signed in 2014, according to the Wall Street Journal. It could take some time to remove Snoopy from all marketing materials, Metlife said.