Photo: John Morrell meat packing plant by Don Graham via Flickr

“The federal government in September briefly suspended meat inspections at the John Morrell & Co. packing plant in Sioux Falls because a truck driver was beating his hogs.

“Because uninspected meat cannot be sold, Morrell had to shut down the kill line for about six hours after the early-morning incident Sept. 8. The plant processes more than 17,000 hogs on a typical day,” reports the Argus Leader.