Manning Beef Shuts for Good; Marineland's Deer Face a Grim Deadline

Manning Beef Permanently Closed

After nearly a century, LA County's last cattle slaughterhouse is closed for good, and the animals who died inside it left the evidence that closed it.

The Pico Rivera Planning Commission voted unanimously Monday night to permanently revoke the operating permit of Manning Beef, ending Los Angeles County's last cow slaughterhouse [581]. The vote followed a three-month undercover investigation by Animal Outlook documenting a downed cow shocked with an electric prod more than 20 times and cattle dropped head-first onto concrete floors [581]. USDA inspectors had cited the plant repeatedly for violating the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act and twice suspended its inspections outright [581]. It's a documented pattern of cruelty that ended in a permanent, enforceable closure rather than another warning letter.

• 61USDA citations for humane slaughter violations logged against the plant between 2018 and 2025 [581]
• 2separate USDA inspection suspensions, the most recent in 2022 for "a trend of repetitive noncompliance" [581]
• Nearly 100 years of operation, dating to the 1920s [582]

Proven"voted unanimously to permanently revoke planning permission for the Manning Beef slaughterhouse" (Animal Outlook) [581]. An official government vote, not a disputed claim.

Solid"61 USDA Non-compliance Records between 2018 and 2025 for violations of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act" (Animal Outlook, citing USDA inspection records obtained via FOIA) [581]. The underlying inspection data is official; the compilation and framing come from the advocacy group that led the campaign.

FromAnimal Outlook

Marineland's Deer Face a Slaughterhouse Deadline

Deer and elk who once packed Marineland's tourist draw are vanishing from the property, and a whistleblower fears where the trucks are headed.

A Marineland employee has told Animal Justice that the shuttered Ontario roadside zoo wants all of its roughly 500 confined deer and elk gone by July 24, and that more than 100 have already been trucked off-site, some possibly straight to slaughterhouses [825][827]. The whistleblower shared photos appearing to show facial wounds, damaged antlers, and fence lacerations, alongside claims of poor veterinary care and overcrowded pens [825][827]. Federal transport law bars moving injured or unfit animals, and Animal Justice has asked the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Ontario's Animal Welfare Services to investigate before more deer leave the property [825][826]. It's a stark reminder that closing a roadside zoo to the public doesn't automatically mean its animals are safe.

• 500+cervids, including red deer, fallow deer, and elk, were confined at Marineland when it closed to the public in 2024 [827]
• 100+already trucked off the property, per the whistleblower [825]
• July 24the deadline by which Marineland reportedly wants all deer and elk gone [825]

EarlyMarineland "wants all the cervids gone by July 24," and some deer "may have already been sent directly to slaughterhouses" (unnamed Marineland employee, relayed by Animal Justice) [825]. A single whistleblower account, not yet confirmed by an inspection or company statement.

FromAnimal Justice

Novonesis Bets on TurtleTree's Cow-Free Lactoferrin

A startup that had shrunk to nine employees eighteen months ago just landed a manufacturing partner many times its size.

Danish biosolutions giant Novonesis has signed an exclusive deal to scale up, manufacture, and commercialize TurtleTree's precision-fermented lactoferrin, called LF+, for the early-life nutrition market, with Japan's Mitsui Chemicals co-investing [455][516]. TurtleTree holds the first global FDA "no questions" letter for a precision-fermented lactoferrin, a milestone it reached not long after cutting its team down to a skeleton crew amid the industry's funding drought [455]. Conventional lactoferrin extraction is brutally inefficient, requiring vast quantities of milk to yield a single kilogram of the purified protein [455]. It's a genuine bright spot for a funding-starved sector: a small company that nearly folded just landed a manufacturing partner with real production infrastructure behind it.

• $40Mraised by TurtleTree since its 2019 founding [455]
• 9employees TurtleTree had left after layoffs in January 2025 [455]
• 10,000 litresof milk needed to extract 1kg of conventional lactoferrin [455]

Company claimNovonesis says the partnership will make lactoferrin "more accessible and cost-competitive" (Thomas Batchelor, Novonesis senior vice president) [455]. The companies' own stated goal for the collaboration; no independent cost figures have been published yet.

FromGreen Queen

Swap Animal Protein for Plant, Studies Suggest

The scale moved and the hot flashes faded once animal protein left the plate, even though the women in the trial ate exactly as much as before.

Two secondary analyses of the same 12-week randomized trial found that postmenopausal women who swapped animal protein for plant protein on a soybean-supplemented vegan diet lost weight and reported far fewer severe hot flashes, without cutting total calories or overall protein intake [1][124]. In the trial, a bigger drop in unprocessed animal food consumption tracked with more weight loss and fewer severe hot flashes among the vegan group [1]. A separate analysis of the same data found that swapping more animal protein for plant protein, even without eating less overall, tracked with measurable weight loss [124]. It's a small trial testing one specific swap, but it's fully randomized and peer-reviewed, and the effect sizes are large for a dietary change with no drug involved.

• 84postmenopausal women completed the 12-week randomized trial [1]
• 88%drop in moderate to severe hot flashes in the original trial [124]
• 106 g/daydrop in unprocessed animal food consumption tied to weight loss in the vegan group [1]

SolidReduced consumption of "unprocessed or minimally processed animal foods" was "associated with weight loss (r=+0.45; P<0.001)" in the vegan group (published trial data, Menopause journal) [1]. A randomized trial with sound design and N=84; study authors disclose they received compensation from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which also promoted these findings.

Solid"A shift of ~16 grams less animal protein and ~13 grams more plant protein per day was linked to a 1-kilogram (2.2 pound) weight loss" (Dr. Hana Kahleova, Physicians Committee) [124]. A secondary analysis of the same trial; methodologically sound but based on a small sample, independent of calorie intake.

From(plant-based diet[tiab] OR vegan diet[tiab] OR vegans[tiab]) ANDPhysicians Committee