U.S., suppliers settle over school lunch beef linked to recall
Posted Nov. 27th, 2013 by Reuter news service
Nov 27 (Reuters) – Several California companies and individuals tied to
the largest beef recall in U.S. history agreed to settle charges of animal
cruelty and the slaughtering of sick cattle for food, including beef supplied to
the National School Lunch Program, the Justice Department said on
Wednesday.
The settlements end a federal fraud lawsuit begun in February 2008 by the
Humane Society of the United States, which had obtained a video that appeared to
show inhumane cattle treatment and improper inspections of sick cattle at a
Chino, California, plant run by Westland Meat Co. and Hallmark Meat Co.
Under the settlements, Westland agreed to enter a $155.68 million consent
judgment, which its lawyer said is unlikely to be collected because the company
is defunct, while its owner, Steve Mendell, agreed to pay $240,000.
The government also said M&M Management LLC, Cattleman’s Choice Inc.,
the estate of Cattleman’s late owner, Aaron “Arnie” Magidow, and Magidow’s widow
JoAnn will pay $2.45 million. JoAnn Magidow was not accused of wrongdoing.
Two other defendants, Donald Hallmark Sr and Donald Hallmark Jr, settled in
October 2012 for $304,130, the government said. The government joined the case
in May 2009.
According to the lawsuit, Westland/Hallmark treated cattle inhumanely and
falsely represented that it processed meat only from ambulatory cattle, when it
also used “downer” cattle that can walk only with help. Such cattle are
considered a greater risk to spread illness.
The case was tied to contracts from August 2003 to January 2008 under which
the U.S. Department of Agriculture bought fresh and frozen beef from
Westland/Hallmark for school lunches. The USDA now bans non-ambulatory cattle
from entering the human food chain.
“Children across the country depend on the National School Lunch Program to
provide them with a healthy meal each day,” Stuart Delery, assistant attorney
general for the Justice Department’s civil division, said in a statement. “We
all depend on companies providing food to the program to follow the rules
designed to ensure those meals are safe to eat.”
Mark Troy, a partner at the law firm Crowell & Moring representing
Westland, Mendell and M&M, said federal meat inspectors “had been on site
100 percent of the time and inspected every single cow,” but the government
blamed Westland because workers had been caught on the video mistreating
cows.
He said the Westland judgment is not expected to be paid because the
company is out of business.
An uncollectible $497 million judgment was previously entered against
Hallmark Meat, the Humane Society has said.
Edward Woods, a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld representing
Cattleman’s Choice, Arnie Magidow’s estate and JoAnn Magidow, in a statement
said his clients “were able to reach a settlement with the U.S. for the costs of
suit, a mere fraction of what the U.S. had been seeking.”
Both lawyers noted that a federal judge had earlier this year dismissed
parts of the government’s case.
A February 2008 recall of Westland/Hallmark beef covered 143 million pounds
(64.9 million kg) of meat over two years, of which 37 million pounds (16.8
million kg) had been bought for school lunches and other federal programs.
USDA officials at the time said much of the recalled beef had probably been
consumed, but that there had been only a minor risk of illness from eating
it.
Westland and M&M were based in Corona Del Mar, California, and
Cattleman’s Choice in Commerce, California, the Justice Department said.
The case is U.S. ex rel. Humane Society of the United States v.
Westland/Hallmark Meat Co et al, U.S. District Court, Central District of
California, No. 08-00221.
NOW, these same corporate bozo's, decided amongst themselves, that it would
be alright, to feed our children all across the USA, via the NSLP, DEAD STOCK
DOWNER COWS, the most high risk cattle for mad cow type disease, and other
dangerous pathogens, and they did this for 4 years, that was documented, then
hid what they did by having a recall, one of the largest recalls ever, and they
made this recall and masked the reason for the recall due to animal abuse, not
for the reason of the potential for these animals to have mad cow BSE type
disease. these TSE prion disease can lay dormant for 5, 10, 20 years, or longer,
WHO WILL WATCH OUR CHILDREN FOR THE NEXT 5 DECADES FOR CJD ???
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Westland/Hallmark: 2008 Beef Recall A Case Study by The Food Industry
Center January 2010 THE FLIM-FLAM REPORT
DID YOUR CHILD CONSUME SOME OF THESE DEAD STOCK DOWNER COWS, THE MOST HIGH
RISK FOR MAD COW DISEASE ???
this recall was not for the welfare of the animals. ...tss
you can check and see here ;
(link now dead, does not work...tss)
try this link ;
Sunday, November 13, 2011
California BSE mad cow beef recall, QFC,
CJD, and dead stock downer livestock
Saturday, November 2, 2013
APHIS Finalizes Bovine Import Regulations in Line with International Animal
Health Standards while enhancing the spread of BSE TSE prion mad cow type
disease around the Globe
I AGREE WITH MR. BULLARD, it’s all about trade and money, BSE TSE PRION aka
mad cow type disease and sound science there from, was thrown out the window by
the USDA et al that fateful day in December 23, 2003, when the USDA lost it’s
‘gold card’ of supposedly being BSE FREE, (that was and still is a sad joke
though), that’s when mad cow junk science was adopted by the USDA...
see why below...kind regards, terry
Monday, November 4, 2013
*** R-CALF Bullard new BSE rule represents the abrogation of USDA’s
responsibility to protect U.S. consumers and the U.S. cattle herd from the
introduction of foreign animal disease
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Exploring the risks of a putative transmission of BSE to new species
snip...see full text and more here ;
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease CJD cases rising North America updated report
August 2013
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease CJD cases rising North America with Canada seeing
an extreme increase of 48% between 2008 and 2010
TSS
