Ranchers question meat plant's shutdown

摘要

AFTER seeing its meat-cutting operation suspended for a week by federal inspectors, a Butte, Mont., packing plant filled with 4-H fair-time cattle, hog and sheep carcasses was up and running again in early August. But not before Ranchland Meat's downtime had upset a few people. "It's the totality of the circumstances that is bothersome," says Dennis McDonald, president of the Montana Cattlemen's Association. "When you start to look at it in terms of timing, in terms of violations, in terms of how itwas handled administratively, it's just a very curious set of circumstances.