A California slaughterhouse, a meat-packing facility and two companies that provided loans to the operations settled a lawsuit over allegations of inhumane treatment that led to a massive beef recall for $155 million. In 2008, the Humane Society of the United States released grainy video taken by an undercover investigator posing as an employee that showed crippled and sick cows being kicked, shocked and shoved with forklifts at the Chino-based Westland Meat Co. and Hallmark Meat Packing Co. Jonathan R. Lovvorn, chief counsel for the Humane Society, said:
"They were saying that they were providing humane treatment and their contracts required it, but they weren't doing it. It's the same as someone selling the Pentagon tanks saying they can go 55 mph when they can actually go 20 mph."
