MISSING MEAT: local processing plant closes

https://www.easttexasmatters.com/ne...t-processing-company-in-longview-closes/

Hope no one on here lost their deer.

Wow.

dang - that place has been around since I was kid

Bummer and very unfortunate for the people that do not get back their meat, especially the ones that rely on it for part of their food source.

Wow - it would be very disappointing to have lost a deer this way. Fingers crossed that not all of those deer were wasted.

The article said there were over 200 empty coolers behind the building with peoples names taped to it. My guess is that
over four times that many brought in deer to be processed without being in a cooler. Sorry for anyone's loss.

That's crazy!!!!

several years back, there was one near Fairfield that the health department shut down about mid way thru deer season because their coolers (refrigeration) weren't cold enough, meat was spoiling. My son lost one of his deer to that. Most processors have to have regular health department inspections and follow pretty strict guidelines ... I'm sure there are fly by night processors that slide under that radar.

DIY

The rules for inspection of deer processors are pretty "loose". If all they do is process wild game, there are no inspections by the state, that leaves it only local and county. Meat handlers as in butchers are supposed to have exams for TB etc., on a regular basis, no regs on wild game processors.

One more reason to cut and grind your own game. It isn't hard and you have total control of the process.

This. Sorry for the folks that lost out.

I heard that a large majority of the meat was still in good condition and that volunteers were working to get everyone their meat back.

Roger that, and not just cut & grind. You can do anything they can do, only better. Building a smoke house is easy. The only thing that I didn’t have in my arsenal was a full size stand up commercial band saw for making frozen/bone in cuts...but finally bought one of those last year.

I went to high school with the Original owner’s son... they kept that place clean and it was very reputable. They sold out a few years ago to another local meat market. They kept the same employees and it stayed very sanitary and the butchers did a damn good job. They only reason that butcher shop stayed open, was because of the game processing. It’s just out of the way to go buy meat unless you live on that side of town. My dad and I became friends with the head butcher and the other employees. We process our own meat, but if I was going to let anyone process my meat, it would’ve been that head butcher. Very trustworthy and just a good hand...A few weeks ago, another company bought the meat market and it went downhill quick. They fired everyone and hired their own butchers... I’m not going to say any names but I would never, ever take your meat there. I went in there to buy beer and it smelled like a hat full of [censored].

Skinners was getting their name off the building as fast as they could.

This^^^^^^


Good deal....

Bad deal!

We lost a deer few weeks ago after taking it there. We saw all of the coolers and even asked questions about it, but was told they were their coolers and were empty. It sucks, because we took one there earlier in the year when it was under the original owners and they did a great job. The one we took was my friends bow buck he took on public land, and scouted/hunted hard to get that one.

Heard from an ex-coworker (I retired) that he lost 2 northern bucks that he too there. Said they were spoiled when he picked them up.
This sucks big time.

Does anyone know if the guy that was running the place is still doing it? I know he had started doing euro mounts and wanted to get my wife's first deer done that she shot this weekend. Where around Longview, Kilgore would you take your deer now? I've probably taken 20 deer there over the years. Best jalepeno cheese smoked sausage I've had. Definitely a bummer.

I wouldn’t trust anyone but James.