Slaughterhouse Boss Faces Felony Charges

Prosecutors hit a slaughterhouse manager with what they say are unprecedented felony charges yesterday after a video released last month showed abusive methods being used to push ailing cattle into a slaughter box, the Press-Enterprise reports. Daniel Ugarte Navarro, 49, faces over 8 years in prison if convicted of five felony counts of animal cruelty and three misdemeanor counts of illegal movement of a non-ambulatory animal.

Prosecutors also charged an assistant manager with the misdemeanor counts. In a video secretly filmed by the Humane Society, Navarro used forklifts, paddles, electric prods and high-pressure water hoses to force cows to their feet. "Waterboarding, I call it," the district attorney said. "It makes your stomach turn to see what they did to the cows." The two men didn't show up for their arraignment yesterday; warrants were issued for their arrest. (More food contamination stories.)