A few weeks ago, I wrote about an underground video by the Humane Society to uncover torture -- and even illegal processing -- of cows at a California meat packing plant called Hallmark. The meat was in turn sold to Westland Meat Co. in Chino, California, which provides meat to school lunches and some fast food restaurants.

Even though most of the meat from that Humane Society video has been eaten, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued a recall of 143 million pounds of meat processed by the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company, according to the Associated Press. It is the largest beef recall in the history of the United States.

Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said his department has evidence that Westland did not routinely contact its veterinarian when cattle became non-ambulatory after passing inspection, violating health regulations…

Federal officials suspended operations at Westland/Hallmark after an undercover video from the Humane Society of the United States surfaced showing crippled and sick animals being shoved with forklifts.

Three ex-employees charged
Two former employees were charged Friday. Five felony counts of animal cruelty and three misdemeanors were filed against a pen manager. Three misdemeanor counts — illegal movement of a non-ambulatory animal — were filed against an employee who worked under that manager. Both were fired.

Authorities said the video showed workers kicking, shocking and otherwise abusing “downer” animals that were apparently too sick or injured to walk into the slaughterhouse. Some animals had water forced down their throats, San Bernardino County prosecutor Michael Ramos said.

Both the Jack-In-the-Box and In-N-Out fast food chains said they would discontinue using Westland’s meat. It is unclear how much of the meat customers ate. But officials estimate that about 37 million pounds of the recalled beef went to school programs and most have already been eaten. Ick.