Congressional Reactions to the Hallmark Meat Packing Investigation

February 15, 2008

	©The HSUS
	Undercover video [WARNING: extremely graphic images] shows cows unable to walk being pushed and run over with a forklift at Hallmark.

Members of Congress are outraged at the shocking animal abuse and disregard for public health documented in The Humane Society of the United States' undercover investigation at Hallmark Meat Packing Co., of Chino, Calif.

A Feb. 14, 2008, letter [PDF] jointly signed by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin and Representatives George Miller (chair of House Education and Labor Committee), Carolyn McCarthy (chair of House Subcommittee on Healthy Families) and Rosa DeLauro (chair of House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture) urges a reassessment of the safety of food in the National School Lunch Program.

Below are some other statements and calls for action from Congress.

 

Senate

• Senator Daniel Akaka's (D-Hawaii) statement on the safety of slaughter facilities [PDF]
  
  
• Senator Barbara Boxer's (D-Calif.) press release, letter to USDA Secretary Ed Schafer and letter to Calif. Attorney General Jerry Brown; press release and letter to Tom Harkin
  
  
• Senator Dick Durbin's (D-Ill.) press release, letter to USDA Secretary Ed Schafer and letter to Richard Raymond of the Food Safety Inspection Service
  
  
• Senator Diane Feinstein's (D-Calif.) press release on the "appalling" Westland Meat Packing case
  
  
• Senator Tom Harkin's (D-Iowa) press release on Westland Meat Packing allegations
  
  
  

House of Representatives

• Congressman Gary Ackerman's (D-N.Y.) press release on the Hallmark investigation and letter to USDA Secretary Ed Schafer
  
  
• Congressman Leonard Boswell's (D-Iowa) press release and letter to USDA Secretary Ed Schafer
  
  
• Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) praises The HSUS's Hallmark cruelty investigation
  
  
• Peter DeFazio's statement with Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) on the Farm Animal Stewardship Purchasing Act
  
  
• Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro's (D-Conn.) press release on tainted meat in the school lunch program [PDF]
  
  
• Congressman Steven LaTourette's (R-Ohio) statement on the downed animal bill 

First posted on Jan. 30, 2008

Related Links

Undercover Investigation Reveals Rampant Animal Cruelty at California Slaughter Plant – A Major Beef Supplier to America’s School Lunch Program