It wasn’t The Jungle, Upton Sinclair’s scathing indictment of the meatpacking industry a century ago, but it was the next best thing.

In January 2008, the Humane Society of the United States released a clandestine video showing slaughterhouse workers abusing nonambulatory cowsÑso-called “downer animals”Ñat a California facility. The video triggered a massive recall of beef across the United States and brought about major changes in California law. In response to the video, the state legislature imposed strict regulations prohibiting slaughterhouses from buying or processing any downer animal. The law also required that nonambulatory animals be euthanized immediately