Meatpacker to shut down permanently after recall: report

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co, which issued the biggest meat recall in U.S. history last week, will likely shut down permanently, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The report on Saturday quoted the company's general manager Anthony Magidow as saying that cash had become tight and he saw no way the company could reopen.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced that the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co was recalling 143 million lbs

of meat, mostly beef, after plant workers were caught on videotape forcing unfit cattle into the slaughterhouse.

"I don't see any way we could reopen," Magidow was quoted as saying in a phone interview. "If the USDA wants payment back, we're dead meat. We're done."

Representatives at Hallmark/Westland, which has been closed since early February, were not immediately available for comment on Sunday. (Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; editing by Gunna Dickson)