Thursday, August 21, 2014

Slaughterhouse Indictment Raises Question: What Else Were They Doing?

The Petaluma slaughterhouse where workers cut off the heads of cows with eye cancer and sliced the “USDA Condemned” stamps out of their carcasses was closed in February and sold to a boutique beef company after 8.7 million pounds of meat were recalled. So far, the only persons reported sickened by the actions are those who read details of the story. Presumably, their numbers are about to grow. A federal grand jury indicted co-owner Jesse Amaral Jr. and two employees, foreman Felix Cabrera and primary yardman Eugene Corda, of the defunct Rancho Feeding Corp. for conspiring to sell “adulterated, misbranded, and uninspected” meat. Another Rancho co-owner, Robert Singleton, was named in a separate federal document, indicating that he was intending to plead guilty. The 11-count indictment alleges that Amaral and Singleton directed Corda and Cabrera to dodge U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors by cutting off the heads of cows with eye cancer and placing healthy cow heads next to the carcasses. Cows that had already been stamped unacceptable had the stamps removed on the kill floor...more

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