Animal cruelty charges filed

Daniel Ugarte Navarro faces up to eight years in prison if convicted of animal cruelty and the illegal movement of a non-ambulatory animal. Navarro, who was a head pen manager at Hallmark Meat Packing, was fired last month after the release of the video by the Humane Society of the United States. "It makes your stomach turn to see what they did to the cows in this situation," Dist. Atty. Michael A. Ramos said at a news conference. "We want to send the message that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated."

This is an appalling story and yet there still isn't much information about the business itself - starting with something as basic as the official name of the company. The Web site lists both Westland Meat Co. and Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. Hallmark appears to be the slaughterhouse and Westland the supplier. There’s virtually nothing else on the site (other than a photo of a plaque naming Westland Supplier of the Year – 2004-2005 – for the National School Lunch Program). A general business Web site shows that the Chino company was formed in 1989, with revenues of $80 million and 100 employees. But those listings are notoriously unreliable. A Factiva search is fruitless as well.

Point is, shouldn't we find out more about Navarro's bosses? Slaughterhouse and meat packing companies are often privately held and seldom covered in the press - until something like this happens. A week or so ago, Westland's president, Steve Mendell, issued a letter of apology that said in part:

Words cannot accurately express how shocked and horrified I was at the depictions contained on the video that was taken by an individual who worked at our facility from October 3 thru November 14, 2007. We have taken swift action regarding the two employees identified on the video and have already implemented aggressive measures to ensure all employees follow our humane handling policies and procedures. We are also cooperating with the USDA investigators on the allegations of inhumane handling treatment which is a serious breech of our company’s policies and training.

Here's the LAT story.