Horse News

Breaking News: FRER Discovers Documented Efforts to Begin Horse Slaughter in Missouri

Press Release from Front Range Equine Rescue

Recent poll shows at least 80% of Americans oppose horse slaughter

June 5, 2012 (Larkspur, Colorado) – Front Range Equine Rescue (FRER) has discovered that Unified Equine, LLC has applied to the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to begin the slaughter of thousands of American horses at a plant in Rockville, Missouri. Despite Unified Equine’s extensive efforts to hide the location of the site of their newest effort to begin slaughtering America’s horses, FRER has obtained this information, and will now begin legal and community-based efforts with other groups across the country to prevent the opening of this slaughterhouse. FRER will also continue its parallel efforts to end the slaughter of American horses for human consumption once and for all.

Horse slaughter for food is a national disgrace, given the fact American horses are not raised as a food animal and the especially brutal methods used to kill them. FRER has mounted an extensive legal battle to keep American horses from being slaughtered for food, in or out of the country, in light of last November’s Congressional appropriation of funding for horse meat inspections. In the last few months, along with the Humane Society of the United States, FRER has filed two Petitions for Rulemaking [http://www.frontrangeequinerescue.org/front-range-equine-rescue-horse-slaughter.php] asking the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the FSIS to enact rules and regulations which would prevent American horses from being slaughtered due to the toxic nature of horse meat. FRER has also approached the New Mexico state government regarding multiple, years-long environmental violations by Valley Meat in Roswell, New Mexico, which is also attempting to begin horse slaughter. FRER’s efforts have attracted national attention, and FRER intends to continue to amplify its legal strategy for as long as it takes to eliminate the possibility of horse slaughter in America and prevent horses from slaughter across its borders.

The application for the Missouri plant states that it intends to open in September 2012, so FRER is acting quickly to prevent any chance of Unified Equine reaching its goal. There has been no U.S. horse slaughter since it was eliminated five years ago; a recent poll shows at least 80% of Americans oppose horse slaughter. Every effort to begin this brutal practice will be fought, and the corporate interests anxious to make a buck off the backs of former work, competition, companion and wild horses will be exposed. The USDA and FDA have documentation as to the danger and illegality of producing horse meat from American horses. FRER calls on all concerned citizens and groups to support its efforts by contacting state, local and federal officials and voicing strong objections to the resumption of this horrific practice in America. For more information on how to help, contact info@frontrangeequinerescue.org.

27 replies »

  1. Sue Wallis is such a bottom feeder, there are no words low enough for her and her cohorts. I hope that everyone will support the efforts of FRER to fight this to the end and the absolute abolishment of horse slaughter in the U.S., hopefully elsewhere as well someday.

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  2. Each of us needs to write to the Governor of MO and the MO State Tourism Dept., and tell our friends to do it also, right now. Tell them, no more drive through MO, no more vacations to Branson, no more buying retirement real estate there, forget the All Star
    Game in KC this summer, won’t be back to Blanchard Springs Caverns. Take your pick. But let them know it’s about Horse Slaughter in Missouri.

    You need to write if you are a mule lover too. There is nothing like a MO mule. You see them them dotting fence lines in pastures throughout the state….Here are 3 email addresses and the

    And what about the good old Clydesdales who will never make a Budweiser hitch?….

    How dare them…..

    Governor’s contact page:

    DirectorMoTourism@ded.mo.gov This is the email address for Katie Danner, Director of Tourism

    Lori.Simms@ded.mo.gov This is the email address of her Deputy Director of Marketing

    http://governor.mo.gov/contact/ This is the website address for a contact page to the Governor

    media@mo.gov This is the page for the Governor’s Communications Office.

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  3. Oops, took Blanchard Springs Caverns out of Arkansas and put it in MO. Putting it back where it belongs, in a state free of horse slaughter!

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  4. I am going to ask this question again, how can USDA review HCHS applications without Congressional authorization and appropriation for HCHS inspection?

    I know the defunding language was removed BY A HANDFUL OF STINKING MEN in a backroom deal……….BUT THEY DIDN’T GIVE THEM MONEY TO DO IT! Reviewing applications is DOING IT! (HCHS). My only guess is Sec Vilsack found discretionary funds to do it (which was always my fear and means money meant for something else was moved to start this process).

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  5. What happened to the one she wanted to open in WY?? Why is she picking on the poor people in MO. Don’t they have enough awefull press with puppy mills being the claim to fame.

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    • Lynette,

      With this kind of behavior, when will someone decide to open a plant to process canines and felines? I’m mean, they eat it in other parts of the world and everyone knows how dogs and cats are suffering in the US………..let’s send an application for dogs and cats for human consumption, take problem animals off the hands of reckless, ignorant and irresponsible owners/breeders and stressed pounds and shelters and slaughter them. Drug exposure doesn’t matter as seen by state and federal government. H*ll, the countries eating this stuff could hardly care either.

      Please, someone send an application to FSIS!

      (btw…I’m being sarcastic but based on regulatory behavior they (FSIS) would be required to TAKE applications….right?)

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    • My gues is smoke and mirrors. Could be on the books but further down the priority list.

      Question does this town have a local paper–something we could take out a one page in? I don’t know the cost–would others be interested in help funding a project like this?

      My fear is SS will start buying truckloads of wild horses to slaughter and BLM happy to be rid of them will turn a blind eye to her activities.

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    • Lynette if Rockville is the destination let me tell you this, it is only 30 minutes from me.
      The river and lakes people depend on for living, that will be destroyed.

      This place has only about 162 people spread out, a basic rock in the road town.
      She is thinking no one will complain about the sights or smells.

      There will be worse crime here, people will steal you blind if you aren’t careful. Especially farm equipment and animals! Sad but true

      She figures the home values are already in the toilet so we can’t use that against her. BS

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      • Mywildponies: If you live so close to Rockville, maybe you can help me. Been trying for 2 days to find out who is the mayor & city council of Rockville with no success, of course I’m really bad on a computer. If you know how I can get that info please email me: blpaints@hotmail.com

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  6. We knew Wallis was still sniffing around MO, so this is no surprise. All in MO that are against these horse slaughterhouses need to get in gear and start raising hell. Atty Gen of MO Chris Koster has been really hard on environmental violators. His email is: attorney.general@ago.mo.gov Also, Gov. Jay Nixon’s email is: http://governor.mo.gov Getting hold of MO Tourism would help too: DirectorMoTourism@ded.mo.gov PLEASE GET INVOLVED NOW!

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  7. Thank you R.T.!!!!
    Denise, Not long before the Mnt Grove scare, our local news station said, “A USDA spokesperson stated they would move funds from other things (such as wheat inspection) if a horse slaughter plant managed to get up and running in the state of Missouri.” You have to remember Roy Blunt (AKA bought and paid for) is one of our senators… One of the three who pulled that backroom deal to strip the Moran amendment from the Ag bill. Claire McCaskill won’t even stand on her beliefs and say NO! She decided we should give it a chance! You can be assured we are NOT going to stand for this! We will rally the troops and protest!

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    • Neither of my senators is up for re-election this year, and my representative has been re-districted out of office, but if you live in a state with pro-slaughter Congressional representatives or state representatives, you need to try to find a candidate you can put up to run these people out of office and replace them with people who reflect the values of Missouri.

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    • Tom:

      I always knew USDA would do the money shuffle…..HOWEVER! they are taking funds from one category to place in a category that has been specifically officially ignored by Congress (for YEARS) with regard to funding and in the face of deficits and inadequate TRADITIONAL food inspectors. In addition, there are justifications required via Federal Regulation (USC, CFR, USDA Regs) that mandate announcement or notification of moving funds (administrative protocols, etc).

      I think letters should also be sent to the Ag and Commerce Committees of both Houses of Congress.

      McCaskill is not only ignorant, she’s a coward.

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  8. I blame all of this on Sue Wallis, she is the one who single-handedly got all this started!! Thank you, FRER, for finding out about this “plan”, & exposing it to all of us! We ran her & her band of idiots out of our state before, we’ll do it again, & again, & again!!!! What part of “We do NOT you or your followers in our state, EVER!!”, doesn’t she understand!? Come on Missouri, they don’t call us the Show-Me-State for nothing! Let’s show those pro-horse-slaughter people that we mean business, show her to the state line, & kick her a– right over, & OUT!! I know many of Missouri’s politicians are for horse slaughter, but there are many who are against it, NOW is the time to stand together & get rid of these monsters, where are you, Claire McCaskill??

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    • Valerie, Claire McCaskill seems to be going back & forth. First she said she was for it, then she sent me an email saying she was against it, and now sounds like she’s for it again. Guess she’s been holding hands with Blunt too much. We in MO are going to fight vigorously against Wallis just like we did in Mountain Grove, and now it seems we have FRER to help us. I just emailed them MacPherson’s videos and her letter to the pro-slaughter atty. Still looking for contact info on Rockville MO city officials, but the town is so small, haven’t found it yet.

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  9. Missouri resident Mindy Patterson is a member of the Calvary Group, which pledges to support anyone who wants to invest in IEBA with legal problems. Mindy Patterson is credited by UOH and former lobbyist and attorney for Feld Enterprises Frank Losey with almost single handedly defeated Prop B in Missouri in 2010. Of course, Prop B failed, but to hear Frank Losey tell it, you’d think Mindy Patterson single handedly invented the sliced bread we have all been living on for years.

    The Calvary Group is part of Sue Wallis’s written business plan. Mindy Patterson is the President-elect of the Missouri Equine Alliance (perhaps the Missouri version of their state’s horse council).

    Good people of Missoui, the Calvary group has a blog, and if you want to learn about their particular brand of irrational, self-serving vision of animal welfare, you will get an aye opener. Fortunately, for the rest of the world and the country, Ms. Patterson’s views are not those shared by most of this country.

    Frank Losey defended Ringling Bros in a suit in which HSUS was only one of the plaintiffs, but he was a part of the SOTH attack HSUS/PETA party.

    Minday Patterson is one of Sue Wallis’s in-state minions, but this woman is definitely plays with blood, bones, and dollar bills. She’ll never be a foodie, but she is meatie.

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    • Proposition B did _not_ fail — it was approved by the voters. It was state reps influenced by agribusiness interests, such as Patterson, that then overthrew the legislation in the legislator.

      Frank Losey is not involved in the Feld Entertainment lawsuits-or at least, not as a legal representative. HSUS was not a plaintiff in the first case, and was only dragged in with the second because of a peripheral association with another organization.

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  10. Good people of Missouri:

    This is what some of your fellow citizens are engaged in:

    http://www.thecavalrygroup.com/whoWeAre.php

    http://www.thecavalrygroup.com/animalRights.php

    http://www.thecavalrygroup.com/mission.php

    There are other pages. Note that there symbols, so to speak is a spur, attached to a book that appears to be taken from a angle under a rider’s foot. Is there anything more symbolic than a spur. I am not implying that all spurs, or even the proper use of spurs is certain situations by trained riders using them carefully is inappropriate, but historically they have been association with the excesses of rodeo, stock people, etc. So the Calvary is living in Missouri with their spurs.

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  11. Just looked at a couple of today’s news articles about this…I doubt seriously this is going to happen. The word has been rec’d from Mountain Grove who ran SS out of town. The local news coverage is very anti-slaughter and I gave them the link to the article about Kaufman,Tx and the Dallas Crown Affair.

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  12. Sure does seem strange KY3 would only interview ONE person!!! Judging from the comments,
    seemed odd to other people too. Would like to hear from other Rockville residents.

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    • Maggie Frazier, I’m afraid KY3 is always very biased in their reporting on this subject (must be related to Roy Blunt). I got after them MANY times when they were reporting on Mountain Grove MO.

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    • I did go there, it is interesting that some of the comments turned into Rep vs. Dem mentality. There are some in Rockville and surrounding areas who are against this. and yes, KY3 is very biased. The station I watch the news on acts like it is a “done deal.” I suspect the rest of their reporting is just as biased. Please everyone contact the State’s governor, Tourism Director, Director of Marketing – lets show them we are not asleep – we care about Missouri’s reputation.

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