Update to HSUS Hallmark Meat Packing Video

On January 31 I posted an article highlighting the horrific acts caught on video by undercover representatives from the Humane Society at the Hallmark Meat Packing Co. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sunday ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of frozen beef from Chino-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co.  Officials said it was the largest beef recall in the United States, surpassing a 1999 ban of 35 million pounds of ready-to-eat meats.  This amounts to all of the beef produced by this plant since February 1, 2006.  That seems like wasteful slaughtering of a lot of healthy cattle to me. 

The video essentially depicts the USDA inspection process as a joke.  The plant workers and managers seemed to know the process enough to be able to sneak cattle that otherwise wouldn’t pass inspection straight past the inspectors and into the slaughterhouse.  According to HSUS President Wayne Pacelle, “A recall of this staggering scale proves that it’s past time for Congress and the USDA to strengthen our laws for the sake of people and animals”. 

No kidding.  What scares me as someone who supports the humane treatment of animals and a red meat consumer is that this kind of thing is probably happening at meat packing plants across the country.  Sad part of it is that the lesson that these other plants will take from this recall probably won’t be to tighten up their compliance with USDA regulations.  Chances are they will opt to simply increase their security in order to prevent those pesky Humane Society people from video recording the things that they know they should not be doing.