The pen manager who oversaw some of the worst documented abuses of downed animals in the Hallmark Meat Company case pled guilty today to two counts of felony animal cruelty and two misdemeanor counts of cruelty to downed animals.

San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos charged Daniel Navarro with animal cruelty, which was uncovered by in an investigation by The Humane Society of the United States.

HSUS says that Hallmark principally slaughtered “spent” dairy cows for the Westland Meat Co., which was the nation’s No. 2 supplier of ground beef for the National School Lunch Program.

The HSUS investigation found that many of the animals were unable to stand and walk. An HSUS investigator filmed slaughter plant employees routinely beating cows to try to make them rise. Cows were repeatedly shocked in the face and eyes with electric prods, and even rammed with the blades of a forklift.

The mistreatment occurred just long enough to make the animals get up on their feet to be slaughtered — this, HSUS says, despite the known risks that such animals may be harboring foodborne pathogens such as E. coli 0157:H7 and Salmonella, or even infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or “mad cow disease”).