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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, February 1, 2008

DOE drops two meat suppliers

Advertiser Staff and News Reports

The state Department of Education's Office of Child Nutrition Programs will no longer use Westland Meat Company and Hallmark Meat Packing beef products due to allegations regarding inhumane treatment of cattle.

Hawai'i was not one of the states listed on any of the three product hold lists provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to a news release. But the DOE says it is taking a precautionary measure by instructing schools to stop using beef products from both companies until further notice.

Hallmark Meat Packing Co. of Chino, Calif., was barred from supplying school lunch and other programs Wednesday while federal investigators look into videotapes that showed workers mistreating sick dairy cows.

Hallmark supplies the Westland Meat Co., which processes the carcasses. The facility is a major supplier to a USDA program that distributes beef to needy families, the elderly and to schools through the National School Lunch Program. Westland was named a USDA "supplier of the year" for 2004-2005 and has delivered beef to schools in 36 states.

Newly installed Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said "appropriate actions will be taken" against Hallmark if it violated food safety and animal cruelty laws.

Video footage showed workers kicking, shocking and otherwise abusing "downed" cows — considered too sick or injured to walk — to force them into a federally inspected slaughterhouse.

"There is no immediate health risk that we are aware of," Schafer said, but until the investigation is completed, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has barred any use of meat coming from the slaughterhouse in federal food and nutrition programs.