Chino meat plant behind biggest beef recall in US history reopens

A year ago, a disturbing Internet video doomed the busy Westland Hallmark slaughterhouse in Chino. It showed cows being mistreated on their way to slaughter. The Humane Society video led to the biggest beef recall in U.S. history and it put Westland Hallmark out of business. Now the slaughterhouse is open again, with a new owner who promises to follow the rules. KPCC's Steven Cuevas paid a visit.

Steven Cuevas: Pat Carrigan is a cattleman – so he knew the guys who ran Westland/Hallmark.

Pat Carrigan: You know, gosh, we been supplying cows to the California market for more than 30 years, so we were supplying cows for this plant.

Cuevas: That relationship made Carrigan a good candidate to buy the Westland/Hallmark slaughterhouse. The company was ruined. Production halted, workers fired. Two were convicted of animal cruelty. It was a spectacular fall for what had been the second largest beef supplier to the National School Lunch Program.

Carrigan: Obviously, there wasn't a lot of people that wanted to buy it. And it dang sure didn't bring nearly the value it would have brought had it been a functioning business without all the history. I mean, the history tainted the sale. So we got it at a discount.

Cuevas: Carrigan won't say for how much. It's now American Beef Packers.

Intercom: Marvin on line 1.
Carrigan: Hold the calls, will ya?

Cuevas: The veteran cattle rancher occupies the same office suite Westland managers used. He's got it all decked out in cowhide-upholstered furniture that reflects his Arizona roots. It's not just the furniture that's new, either.

Carrigan: We replaced 100 percent of the animal handling crew. New management and everybody in there.

Cuevas: Carrigan did rehire dozens of workers on the meat processing and packing side. The plant processes 200 cows a day, half of Westland's output.

[Sound of slaughterhouse interior]

Carrigan: You wanna go through the whole plant?
Cuevas: Sure.
Carrigan: OK.

Cuevas: Carrigan moves through the slaughterhouse quickly. He's eager to show how efficient and clean it is. The work is fast and dangerous. To the uninitiated, it looks brutal.

Carrigan: That's where they're euthanized, back there.

Cuevas: The heads and hooves are removed, and the carcasses are suspended by their hindquarters on overhead trolleys. They're bled and quickly moved through a process familiar to anyone who's gutted and cleaned a fish.

Carrigan: This is where ya pull out the organs and he'll check the liver, kidneys, heart, lungs to make sure there's no cancer or any infections or anything.

Cuevas: An army of mostly Latino workers in orange hardhats and baby blue smocks butchers, de-bones, and cleans the meat. Pat Carrigan points out the five USDA inspectors on duty.

Sixteen surveillance cameras make sure workers comply with food safety and animal handling rules. But some people are still uneasy about the slaughterhouse reopening.

Denise Clendening: Well, it's not just having themselves police themselves with video cameras.

Cuevas: Denise Clendening is a food safety activist from Chino Hills. She staged protests outside Westland/Hallmark during last year's beef recall.

Clendening: When they first built that facility they didn't have houses surrounding it. And now the houses have gotten closer to it, so maybe there should be more of an awareness of whether it's a good fit for the community to have a slaughterhouse so close to houses and other businesses.

Cuevas: But with tax revenue down, Chino mayor Dennis Yates says he's not about to block a business with 200 jobs.

Dennis Yates: Which is good for our city economy, especially in this day and age with so many people out of jobs. That plant was strictly constructed to butcher beef.

Cuevas: Besides, says Erika Voogd, the company follows the rules. She's a beef industry consultant – and she gave a rules seminar at American Beef Packers before it opened.

Erika Voogd: We covered animal handling and welfare influence on meat quality, humane handling basic principles, humane slaughter and welfare auditing, stunning guidelines – how to stun properly, and then they were tested at the end of the training to review their knowledge.

[Sound of Carrigan showing off surveillance cameras]

Cuevas: Pat Carrigan stands before video screens flickering with close circuit images of his slaughterhouse. The system costs tens of thousands of dollars, so Carrigan likes to show it off. He also hopes it'll earn him some good PR.

Carrigan: There were people who bought product from the plant that when it got recalled, they took a loss. A lot of big companies that have valuable brands with a lot of image associated with it, they're going to be cautious until we have a proven track record and know it won't taint their image.

Cuevas: Pat Carrigan says one big fast food chain might be ready to buy from American Beef Packers soon. And he says his company will soon be eligible to sell beef to the National School Lunch Program.