House grills meat packing chief

Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. President Steve Mendell and attorney Asa Hutchinson, left, wait to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 12, 2008, before the House Oversight and Investigations subcommittee hearing on federal regulations for food and food safety.

When faced with video showing sick cattle being illegally slaughtered the head of the Southern California slaughterhouse at the center of the largest beef recall in U.S. history was forced to acknowledge that his earlier statement, made under oath, that no ill cows from his plant entered the food supply was incorrect. Although the video was widely circulated and available at many sites on the internet Mendell avoided a perjury charge by claiming he had never seen it. This is the video that led to his plant's shutdown and last month's recall of 143 million pounds of beef and he had never bothered to watch it?

This story was all over the news today. Best headline goes to the Chicago Tribune:
House grills meat packing chief.