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CUSD Unsure if Local Schools Affected by Chino Meat Scare
By
Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin
Staff Writer
COMPTON – The
school district said it is unsure if local students have been eating
beef originating from a meat packing plant that was videotaped abusing
sick cows before they were slaughtered and processed into meat distributed
to schools.
The Humane Society last week released undercover footage of employees
mistreating “downed” dairy cows, or those too sick or injured
to walk, at the Hallmark Meat Packing Plant in Chino. Hallmark supplies
Westland Meat Co., which in turn supplies the National School Lunch Program.
“Until we get notification, we don’t know anything specific,” said
Compton Unified Communications Coordinator Sunny Yu. “The meat we
provide our students is USDA-approved, so we’ll see what they say
about this.”
The video, released Jan. 30 after a six-week undercover investigation,
shows plant workers jabbing in the eyes of and applying electrical shocks
to the sick animals to force them into a federally inspected slaughterhouse.
One scene depicts workers shooting high-intensity water sprays up
the cows’ noses in what The Humane Society labeled a form of animal “waterboarding” – torture
that simulates drowning.
The Chino facility is a major supplier to a U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) program that also distributes beef to needy families and the elderly.
Westland has delivered beef to schools in 36 states and was even named
a USDA “supplier of the year” for 2004-05.
Newly appointed Agri-culture Secretary Ed Schafer said “there is
no immediate health risk that we are aware of.” The USDA has banned
any use of meat from the slaughterhouse in federal food and nutrition programs
while it investigates the matter.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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