Meat Company Exposed For Illegal Slaughter And Sale To Schools Of Downer Cattle

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by Long Island Attorney Paul A. Lauto, Esq./www.liattorney.comThe Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has exposed the Westland Meat Co., one of the nation’s leading suppliers of the school lunch program, for the illegal slaughter and sale of sick and downer cattle.  The USDA forbids the sale of sick or downer cattle, because they exhibit a higher rate of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease.  The HSUS revelation, resulted in the largest BSE related beef recall in U.S. history.  The USDA failed to detect this illegal activity notwithstanding having a reported 8 on site inspectors.The HSUS brought a False Claim Act (FCA) suit against Westland Meat Co., reportedly resulting in a treble damages judgment of approximately 500 million.  A settlement agreement reduced the now bankrupt company’s liability to approximately 155 million, of which approximately 3 million will be paid out of most of the remaining assets of the company’s owners and investors.

The HSUS substantiated the illegal acts with the below undercover video (also see video at www.liattorney.com/scales-of-justice.html or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhlhSQ5z4V4), showing slaughterhouse employees beating and dragging ill and downer cattle to the slaughter.  Please be advised that the below video is graphic in nature and is for mature audiences only.  Once again a governmental agency designed to protect our families and children, has failed to fulfill its purpose.  Thankfully, in this one case, we had the HSUS to do the job of the USDA.

Long Island Lawyer
Paul A. Lauto, Esq.

www.liattorney.com
Paul A. Lauto, Esq.
Paul A. Lauto, Esq. completed his undergraduate studies at SUNY at Stony Brook in 1987, with a major in political science and a double minor in socio-legal studies and moral-legal issues in philosophy. Mr. Lauto received his Juris Doctor from New York Law School in 1990 and was admitted in 1991 to practice in the courts of New York State, as well as the Eastern and Southern Districts of the United States District Court.

Mr. Lauto has primarily focused on personal injury throughout his career and previously worked as in-house counsel to a major insurance company. In 2002 Mr. Lauto established Paul A. Lauto, PLLC, with a primary concentration on personal injury, all types of accident cases, Wills, Trusts and Estates and more. Paul is the sole author of his Scales of Justice blog, which provides updates and information about current legal stories in the news and how they may affect our lives. Mr. Lauto prides himself on providing clients maximum results, with a high level of personal attorney service and attention that is uncommon in the profession. For more information please visit http://www.liattorney.com