Horse-slaughter plant is dead

Roswell family business suspends plan, cites lack of cooperation from USDA

UPDATED

Entrepreneurs who wanted to slaughter horses and sell the meat in Europe suspended their plan today, complaining that the federal government stalled them into submission.

Valley Meat Co., a family business near Roswell, gave up after four months of seeking approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a horse-slaughter plant, said A. Blair Dunn, attorney for the business.

A spokesman for the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service in Washington said tonight that the agency has not done horse inspections in six years and simply needs more time to make sure it handles the job correctly.

But Dunn said that his clients, the De Los Santos family that owns the meat-processing plant, no longer could subsist while awaiting for a decision from the USDA. The family instead is restarting its cattle business, probably as soon as Monday.

“They’re suspending any plans for the horse-slaughter plant,” Dunn said in an interview. “It doesn’t look like anybody is going to get a grant of inspection for horse slaughter.”

Neil Gaffney, the USDA spokesman, said no horse-slaughter plants exist in the United States, and approving one is not a simple process.

“Following a decision by Congress in November 2011 to lift the ban on horse slaughter, two establishments, one in New Mexico and one in Missouri, have applied for a grant of inspection exclusively for equine slaughter,” he said. “The Food Safety and Inspection Service is currently reviewing those applications.”

But, he said, the service had determined that that significant time was needed to update its testing and inspection processes. Only then will it be able to implement an inspection regimen, Gaffney said.

The collapse of the horse-slaughter plan disappointed one animal-protection group in New Mexico but heartened another.

Rusty Cook, president of the New Mexico Horse Council, had hoped the Roswell slaughter plant would go into operation.

Cook said horses now are abandoned, starved and hauled long distances for slaughter in foreign countries. The Roswell plant would have improved that situation, she said.

Cook said she had hoped Valley Meat Co. could keep its proposal alive until after the November election, in hopes that “the atmosphere” would be different then.

A different view came from Lisa Jennings, executive director of Animal Protection of New Mexico, and an opponent of the slaughter plant.

“New Mexicans want a truly humane safety net for horses,” she said. “Now we can put this chapter behind us.”

Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican, and State Land Commissioner Ray Powell, a Democrat, both opposed horse slaughter in New Mexico. Martinez recently said she planned to send a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture asking it to deny the company’s application.

But today Martinez said through her spokesman that she had no comment on the project’s demise.

The De Los Santos family had to retrofit its 7,000-square-foot plant to prepare for the slaughter and processing of horses. A meat-processing plant cannot slaughter cattle and horses simultaneously, Dunn said.

Even with the changes, the plant can accommodate cattle again, Dunn said.

He said the family had no expectation of selling horse meat in the United States, but it believed the food would be readily accepted in foreign markets, especially Europe.

“They thought they had a good opportunity for their business to expand,” Dunn said.

He said his clients received other bad news today — a notice of an $86,000 fine from the state Environment Department. The state alleges that Valley Meat Co. failed to register a composting site for manure and cow intestines.

Dunn said the company met every regulatory requirement, but the state at one point lost the application. He said the De Los Santos family was in full compliance with environmental laws.

Comments

[Phazzii]

Let this be a true real reminder horse slaughter is NOT humane nor wanted in America.. We as responsible horse owners will continue to fight tooth and nail to put this criminal intended business to rest..

Horses are worth more to Americans than meat and deserve our respect.

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[Remy]

What is missing from this report is the dismal history of violations at the Valley Meat plant owned and operated by the De Los Santos family. Frankly, I am surprised that he USDA will allow this family to continue to operate a cattle slaughter plant given their proclivity for abuse and environmental infractions. www.abqjournal.com/.../fines-sought-against-slaughterhouse.html

[cj]

What is missing is the fact we need to return horse processing to the USA We can process healthy horse meat and anyone that does not believe that is basically stupid....as for the TB folks let them deal with their drugged up ponies! Those horse huggers that have no "skin in the game" are the worthless do gooders that are against proper and humane horse processing. I have an idea for you go find another cause to screw up people's lives and business. I bet most of these morons are Liberal Democrats living in Disneyland!

[Fred South]

The simple fact is the USDA is not providing a service that it currently, by law, is required to do. They are intentionally stalling because to allow the permits brings them under fire. I think the family needs to sue the USDA for failure to process their application in a timely manner interfering with their rights as business owners. Sad to see the during this current administration that they are NOT willing to support honest business owners.

[ann fox]

The slaughtering of socialized companion animals for their meat is NOT a profession to be proud of! Here's hoping the people involved in this revolting way of making a living can re-invent themselves & find a more suitable form of employment!

[Ewafb]

Entrepreneurs? Excuse me while I catch my breath from laughing. Here is yet another article on Santos that leaves out two important details. Santos was shut down by the USDA this past February for inhumane treatment of slaughter animals and was recently fined over $80,000 for environmental issues. So much for compliance. Those are the two most common violations in horse slaughter plants so the USDA is doing exactly what they should be doing. He has already proven he can’t follow laws for traditional livestock and one can only imagine what a chamber of horrors it would be for horses.

Horses were abandoned, starved and hauled long distances when the three US plants were open. Hundreds of thousands of horses were hauled to Mexico and Canada. What was the excuse then? It wasn’t lack of slaughter then and it surely isn’t lack of slaughter now.

As far as Missouri, Wallis was run out of town in Mountain Grove and the Rockville plant is mired in legal issues and shell companies.

Slaughter is for food production, not a disposal service. Only animals that were raised and regulated as food animals should enter the food chain.

[horseadmirer]

They were raised as companion animals and should not have their lives ended in pain and terror. If the Euroreans, Japanese etc. want horsemeat, let them raise it. We need responsible control on breeders and racing should be banned.