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and owned by its CEO Steven Mendell, was one the most efficient, sanitary.
and state-of-the-art meatpacking plants in the United States. The meat-packing
plant, which regularly passed inspections by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA). employed over 20o workers who slaughtered and then prepared the
beef for shipment to fast-food restaurants such as Burger King and Taco Bell.
Most of the millions of pounds of meat the plant prepared yearly. however, were
delivered under contract to one of the federal government's most coveted
accounts: the National School Lunch Program. which named the plant supplier
of the year in 2005.
So at the end of 2007 when the humane Society turned over a videotape,
secretly filmed by one of its investigators who had taken a job as a plant
employee, to the San Bernardino County district attorney that showed major
violations of safety procedures, it caused an uproar. The videotape showed two
workers dragging sick cows up the ramp that led to the slaughterhouse using
metal chains and forklifts, shocking them with electric prods, and shooting
streams of water in their noses and faces. Not only did the tape show inhumane
treatment of animals, it also provided evidence that the company was flaunting
the ban on allowing sick animals to enter the food supply chain, something that
federal regulations explicitly outlawed for fear of human health and disease
issues.
By 2008. the USDA. concerned that contaminated beef had entered the supply
chain. especially the one leading to the nation's schools, issued a notice for the
recall of 143 million pounds Of beef processed in the plant over the last two
years the largest recall in history. In addition. the plant was shut down as the
investigation proceeded. In 2008 when CEO Steven Mendell was subpoenaed
to appear before the House Panel Energy and Commerce Committee, he
denied these violations had taken place and that any diseased cows had
entered the food chain. When panel members demanded that he view the
videotape, he claimed he had not seen it, even though it was widely available.
and he was forced to acknowledge that -two cows- had in fact entered the pland
and that inhumane treatment of animals had taken place.
Moreover, federal investigators turned up evidence that as early as 1996 the
plant has been cited for overuse of electric prods to speed cattle through the
plant and had , been cited for other violations since, suggesting these abuses
had been going on for a long period. This view gained strength when one of the
workers shown in the videotape claimed that supervisors were pressuring
workers to ensure 500 cows a day were slaughtered and processed so the plant
could meet its quota and make the high profits the meatpacking business
provides and that he and other workers had no say in the matter: They were just
following orders from the supervisor.
These unethical and illegal work practices led investigators to fear that over the
years, thousands of sick cows had been allowed to enter the food chain. Most
of the 143 million pounds of beef recalled had already been consumed anyway.
Not only costumers, and specially schoolchildren, have been harmed by the
company´s illegal actions, however. It seems likely that the plant will be
permanently shut down and all 220 workers will lose their jobs. Indeed, the
employees directly implicated by the video have already been prosecuted and
one, who pleaded guilty to animal abuse, was convicted and sentenced to six
months of imprisonment in 2008.
Whether or not the company´s managers will experience the same fate remains
to be seen, but clearly all stakeholders have been hurt by the unethical,
inhumane, and illegal actions by manager that, as the Humane Society had
suspected for years, were commonplace in the plant.
in your opinion,why did the managers and employees of the meat packing plant
behave in the way they did.
outline a series of steps the plant´s managers should have taken to prevent this
problem from occurring