1990s HFA campaign still bringing vealer convictions
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:
MILWAUKEE–Brown Packing Company, a leading U.S. veal
producer, on August 10, 2009 agreed to plead guilty to felony
conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, and to pay a fine of
$2 million for illegally giving hormones and steroids to veal calves
between 1997 and 2004, while marketing the meat as “all natural.”
The case was the latest of a 15-year series of successful
prosections of major players in the veal industry for misuse of
hormones and steroids. An informant tipped the Food & Drug
Administration to the violations in 1989, but serious
investigation did not start until February 1994, after an outbreak
of poisoning caused by the synthetic steroid clenbuterol hit at least
140 people who ate contaminated veal in an unrelated case in Spain.
Pressured by the Humane Farming Association, the U.S. Department of
Justice eventually won convictions of at least eight executives of
leading veal firms. Among them were the Dutch entrepreneurs who
brought the crated veal industry to the U.S. in the first place,
circa 1962.