The U.S. Department of Agriculture has recalled 143 million pounds of frozen beef from a Southern California slaughterhouse that is being investigated for mistreating cattle.
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The federal agency said the recall will affect beef products dating to February 1, 2006, that came from Chino-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., which supplies meat to the federal school lunch program and to some major fast-food chains…
Federal officials suspended operations at Westland/Hallmark after an undercover video surfaced showing crippled and sick animals being shoved with forklifts.
Authorities said the video showed workers kicking, shocking and otherwise abusing “downer” animals that were apparently too sick or injured to walk into the slaughterhouse.
As folks noted in the article, once again, the USDA closes the barn door after the cows are out.
Update: Wow. Here’s the list of brand names and products affected by this recall.
Funny how there has been an exponentially larger amount of stories, regarding the safety of our food, since Bush has taken office.
Coming to a foreign food aid program, near you.
Reminds me of the sick video of how employees at one of KFCs suppliers tortured the chickens by stomping on them, throwing them into the wall etc.
I’ll bet there is a fast-food joint where one could special order the sandwiched pictured above.
Why did I add an “ed” to sandwich…I don’t know, I really don’t know.
What kind of low life motherfucker treats animals like this? This is criminal activity and needs to be prosecuted as such. Nothing ticks me off more than cowards taking out aggression on helpless animals.
#4 Do you want to “super size” it…fries with that?
#6 The solution is simple USDA operated CCTV cameras required in every slaughter house with the tapes sent monthly to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Not that the USDA will review the tapes but if there is an investigation then the tapes are available.
Certainly the costs of CCTV cameras are less then the cost of recalling millions of pounds of beef! Its a simple example of cost over benefit.
Cheers
7,
No. The cost of the recall will be peanuts, since most of the meat has been consumed. Additionally, the cost of the penalty will similarly be peanuts. Read Fast Food Nation for an eye-popping expose in the US meat industry.
#8 Named
The USDA must be recalling the shit produced from the consumed meat…or maybe not. The article clearly states meat recalled, not shit. A product recall means there must be product not used/consumed.
Any product recall costs money – its not a free lunch. There are costs for: administration of the recall, investigations, legal, collection, transportation, disposal, and the loss of product.
Who ultimately pays for this? Everyone.
Cheers
This was actually an issue a month ago. Why is it suddenly back in the news?
These bastards have been targeted for several years, but because of their connections to high ranking politicians of both parties nothing was done. The secret video finally did it.
The best part…..all of the employee’s on the tape are illegals. Another point that Friends of Animal’s has tried to point out to Homeland Security for the last year.
This just got too big to be hidden any longer.
The local TV talking heads, tonight, had admissions from two local school districts that they’d started setting aside frozen beef from the targeted lots – two weeks ago. Didn’t say who notified them.
But, the crud is out there in school districts – and they also identified food programs for seniors and the indigent – and tribal food programs.
Next time? Feed the stuff to the country club crowd, first.
Looks like somebody failed to make their pay off obligations.
BEEF SALIVARY GLANDS, LYMPH NODES AND FAT [TONGUES].YUM
Oh c’mon you guys ! Everybody knows bse takes years to manifest and canceride cows can’t pass along their disease ! So, what’s left to eat if the cows got abused ? Human semen I suppose ? You guys need to get a life..or maybe just another Mcd’s boiger ?
The previous was sponsored but not paid for by____
(insert your political favorites above).
It’s just another American idiotsin..cracy..in(un) sanity(sanitary?). Y’gotta love english.
Hallmark Meat … When you care enough to send the hairy beast.
mistreating cattle? so fucking what, they’re gonna be eaten
#18. Sure so lets kill them in the most painful way possible….moran.
I think I’m going back to being a vegetarian.
Who gives a crap if meat eaters kick the bucket?
#11…Moss….this story came out weeks ago. The Humane Society did the undercover work and as soon as they had proof of what was going on(their original purpose was to document the inhumane treatment of the cattle, finding out they were possibly processing bad cows was just icing on the cake), they then took the video’s to the media and local prosecutors and the USDA was informed.
Even the company’s CEO was honestly horrified at what he saw and ordered the plant closed BEFORE the USDA was alerted. Charges have been brought(felony in Calif.) against the men in the video’s and their Supervisors have already been made. The reason(so I was informed) for the 2 years back recall was that one of the illegals working there that got arrested said this was going on for that long. And, sadly, some of the meat is actually frozen for that long. Scary huh?
Anyway, a whole crap load of school districts(especially in Calif., Arizona, Utah and Nevada) already knew what was coming. The local district here actually had ALL beef products off the menu the day after I saw the story locally, about 3 weeks ago. The kids are eating a lot of chicken and grains right now.
Put an end to the slaughter – DON’T EAT BEEF !!!
p.s. It takes years for the Mad Cow Disease to show up in humans that eat infected cows, so this may only be the beginning of the story, not the end !!!