The manager of a Texas processing plant has pleaded guilty in a conspiracy to sell adulterated ingredients to pet food manufacturers.
Federal prosecutors say 48-year-old William Douglas Haning pleaded guilty to two charges Thursday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis. Sentencing for Haning has not yet been scheduled.
Haning was operations manager of a Wilbur-Ellis Co. processing plant in Rosser, Texas. The company has already paid more than $4.5 million in restitution.
Federal authorities say Wilbur-Ellis substituted lower cost ingredients for chicken and turkey meal in shipments from a Texas plant to pet food manufacturers. Some shipments included ground-up feathers.
The ingredients posed no health threat to animals that ate the pet food.
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