The last slaughterhouse in Los Angeles County permanently closed its doors nearly four months ago in the wake of operational violations, escaped cattle and, finally, bankruptcy. Now, with the site up for sale, the city of Pico Rivera is vying for a chance to reimagine it.
The city announced on Tuesday its intention to participate in the public auction of the 3.74-acre meat-processing facility, known as Manning Beef, with the goal of barring another meatpacking company from taking over the site.
“Hopefully either we purchase it outright, or, at the end of the day, if we can work with another developer who wants to come in and share our same vision,” Steve Carmona, Pico Rivera’s city manager, said of Wednesday’s auction.
The site could be used for affordable housing, public open space, or to house an operation focusing on sustainable, plant-based food innovation, according to the city.
Carmona said Tuesday the opening bid for the site of the former facility was $7 million.
Without disclosing an exact amount, the city manager said that Pico Rivera had set aside some funding for strategic real estate acquisitions and that this would be the ideal investment for the community.
Manning Beef was founded in the 1920s as a ranching business. Three decades later, the meatpacking plant opened its doors in Pico Rivera, said Ben Williamson, executive director of Animal Outlook, a national animal advocacy organization.
“I was born and raised in the city, and ever since I was a kid, it’s always been there,” Carmona said. “It’s had some challenges in the community.”
Manning Beef made national headlines in 2021 when a small herd of cattle escaped through an open gate and went for a nighttime stroll, wandering more than a mile away into a residential neighborhood. One of the about 40 escapees charged at a family of four and was fatally shot by law enforcement who were assisting in the effort to round up the animals.
The company was closely watched by Williamson’s organization, Animal Outlook, after Virginia-based company Smithfield Foods announced the closure of its Farmer John’s meatpacking plant in the city of Vernon in 2022.
Animal Outlook planted an undercover worker at Manning Beef toward the end of 2024; they were employed from October to December.
“What we found was animals going to slaughter while they appear conscious,” Williamson said. In another incident, the worker reported a cow with a physical disability who was shocked a total of 20 times, he said.
Manning Beef accumulated 61 humane-handling violations between 2018 and 2024, for allegedly starving animals, beating them and excessive electrical shocks, he said.
In 2022, the Department of Agriculture suspended the facility after inspectors observed a cow that was being hoisted during the slaughtering process while still breathing, the result of failed attempts to stun the animal that inspectors called a “a trend of repetitive noncompliance.”
In noncompliance records from 2023 reviewed by The Times, Manning Beef was accused of multiple instances of a leaky ceiling, separate instances of live insects on the kill floor, unsanitary conditions and operational malfunctions.
“This has been an issue for the animal protection community for about 10 years,” Williamson said. “We don’t want a slaughterhouse in Los Angeles County.”
Manning Beef was being marketed prior to Wednesday’s sale as having “a commanding position in the regional protein supply chain with no direct competition within a 400-mile radius.”
“If anyone does have an idea of buying it for the purpose of what it’s being marketed as, for slaughtering animals, they’ll have a large contingent of public opposition,” Williamson said. “There will be regular protests and vigils.”
Animal rights activists plan to gather at 9:15 a.m. on Wednesday morning at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, where the auction is set to take place, to voice their concerns, he said.
Actor Joaquin Phoenix is among those who has lobbied to end the slaughterhouse operation. The animal rights activist saved two cows from slaughter, Liberty and Indigo, in 2020.
“This is our moment to show that Pico Rivera chooses progress over violence,” Phoenix said in a statement, “that communities can heal, and that even where suffering once reigned, compassion can flourish.”
If the city succeeds in purchasing the Manning Beef site, the initial funding would come from its specific fund for real estate acquisitions, Carmona said, and then the city would seek funding sources, including state grant programs and philanthropic support.
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