Meatpacker in Cow-Abuse Scandal May Shut as Congress Turns Up Heat

CHINO, Calif. — Last year, a man carrying a hidden video camera took a $12-an-hour job at a little-known beef slaughterhouse here. Now the meatpacker is about to collapse, and has become a flashpoint in a national debate over meat safety and the quality of food Americans serve their schoolchildren.

Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co., one of the biggest suppliers of beef to the national school-lunch program before videos showing animal cruelty at the plant helped trigger the biggest meat recall in U.S. history, probably will shut down permanently, according to the company's general manager, Anthony Magidow.

The company's president and owner, Steve Mendell, hasn't responded to requests for comment, and its controller, Juan Acevedo, referred an interview request to Mr. Magidow.

"I don't see any way we can reopen," Mr. Magidow said in a telephone interview. The closely held company, which had about $100 million a year in sales, is starting to run low on cash, he said.

Hallmark/Westland struggled for years, but it began turning a profit consistently after being approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to begin supplying beef for the federal school-lunch program in 2003, Mr. Magidow said. Within two years, it was supplying about 25 million pounds of beef a year to the program through competitive bidding.

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