Source: Front Range Equine Rescue press release
Group Urges the United States Department of Agriculture to Deny Valley Meat’s Application Based on Decades of Lawbreaking
Rick de los Santos speaking with forked tongue to CBS News Correspondent Bill Whitaker about killing and eating horses (CBS) – May, 2012
(April 22, 2013)— Front Range Equine Rescue (“FRER”) notified the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) that the owner of Valley Meat Company, in Roswell, New Mexico, recently made blatantly false statements about his criminal record on two applications to begin slaughtering healthy American horses. If USDA grants Valley Meat’s application, it will be condoning the kind of conduct that jeopardizes the health and safety of consumers, increases the chances of horse meat showing up in American beef, and threatens the integrity of the federal meat inspection system.
In the past seventeen months, Valley Meat has submitted to USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (“FSIS”) three applications so that Valley Meat can begin slaughtering horses. On two of these applications, Mr. De Los Santos committed federal felonies when he falsely stated that he had no criminal history of felony convictions. The third application, submitted in March 2013, confirms his criminal history.
If Mr. De Los Santos had not lied about his criminal record on these applications, FSIS could have denied his application and thwarted his plans. Federal law requires persons who want to conduct slaughter operations to be approved and inspected by FSIS. Federal law also gives FSIS discretion to deny any applicant who has been convicted of a felony. On Valley Meat’s December 2011 and March 2012 applications for inspection, when asked to list all of his felony convictions, State or Federal, Mr. De Los Santos falsely answered: “None.” In fact, Mr. De Los Santos has been convicted of two felonies—once for a residential burglary, and once for criminal trespass.
The letter sent by FRER explains that while Mr. De Los Santos’s “decades-long criminal history and recent felonious actions are more than sufficient for FSIS to deny Valley Meat’s application for inspection . . . , Mr. De Los Santos’s refusal to play by the rules while Valley Meat [previously] operated as a cattle slaughter facility provides further reason to deny Valley Meat’s application.” The letter documents a pattern of noncompliance and disregard for numerous environmental, food safety, and humane handling laws by Valley Meat, demonstrating its utter lack of fitness to operate a horse slaughter facility. FRER also notified authorities of Mr. De Los Santos’s intentional false statements on the two FSIS applications.
Hilary Wood, President of Front Range Equine Rescue, states: “This evidence of criminal misconduct in connection with Valley Meat’s application for slaughter, combined with the long history of other violations, should compel FSIS to deny the application. Because horses are not raised to be food, virtually all horse meat from American horses is adulterated as a result of the veterinary drugs and other substances regularly administered to them. The tainted nature of horse meat plus Mr. De Los Santos’s pattern of disregard for the law makes Valley Meat a direct threat to the integrity of the food supply.”
In November 2011, Congress authorized the inspection of horses for slaughter in America, something that had been prohibited since 2006. Earlier this year, the Obama administration determined that FSIS must review—but not necessarily approve—Valley Meat’s application. FSIS has clear authority under federal law to deny the application as a result of Mr. De Los Santos’s criminal history and his recent actions to conceal that history. In fact, FSIS has exercised this authority in the past, withdrawing its grant of inspection from a California meatpacking firm in 2001 for its owner’s failure to disclose felony convictions on the company’s application for inspection.
FRER is represented by lawyers at Schiff Hardin.
Facts:
- Title 18, Section 1001 of the United States Code makes it a felony punishable by up to 5 years of prison for knowingly and willfully making a “materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation” on a federal application.
- Title 21, Section 671 of the United States Code gives the Secretary of Agriculture the authority to deny an application for inspection of any establishment that is unfit to conduct slaughter operations as a result of any felony conviction of its owner.
- Throughout his career in the slaughter industry, Valley Meat’s owner has consistently violated environmental, animal welfare, and food safety laws.
- Ensuring the honesty and integrity of slaughter facilities is integral to FSIS’s efforts to protect the food supply.
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- Bid in New Mexico to have horse meat declared “unqualified” (horsetalk.co.nz)
- Equine Advocacy Groups Expose Gross Gap in U.S. Border Horse Slaughter Inspections (rtfitchauthor.com)
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Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
De Los Santos LMAO……Caught lying?? A Sociopath does lie…………..
Go FRONT RANGE RESCUE……….we are supporting you all the way!!!!!
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Hilary Wood – one of the most courageous, intelligent front line fighters for horses and humanity. You go girl! If, FSIS even tries to grant a license, there is ample reason to appeal it to the courts and keep an injunction going that will prevent this house of horrors from opening.
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Great detective work. This, in itself, should be enough to put the brakes on him. I’ve said all along that this guy and his despicable attorney are liars.. Congratulations!
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Shared.
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No doubt now the type of people who operate and work in slaughter facilities. Burglary? Criminal Trespass? And don’t get me started on Sappington. (Now there’s a man everyone hopes their daughter will marry) He’s a “Jack the Ripper” in the making.
I’m so glad the pressures of the advocacy and the public at large have produced what I hope is the final nail in this coffin.
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So the real dirt comes out on this guy, our state does not need him, go find a dish washing job and do some real work for a change. Close this slaughter co. down now!!!
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Judy…technically, that slaughter house is closed down.
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Application being denied should be a “no brainer” decision. But will it?
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Right! I keep wondering why this entire subject isn’t a no brainer.
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I want the garbage attorney representing Valley Meats walked up the scaffold…..but first, strip him of his right to practice law.
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This guy Rick de Santos can’t get hired anywhere so he want to kill horses. What a low life scum bag. The Government should not even consider his application to open a slaughter house to kill horses.
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Yes strip him of his rights to practice Law any where in the US !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LIEING RAT !!!!!!!Great work Front range Rescue !!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Thank you Front Range for being all over De Los Santos the scum. Great work. I am going to follow up with the FSIS to urge them to deny this permit. The man does not seem to think any law applies to him, just another criminal element that inhabits the business of horse slaughter.
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So sad this is even a topic open for discussion….horse slaughter in the US should be BANNED!!!!
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Actually if they convicted him on falsifying the application then he’d have 3 felony convictions thus making him an habitual offender punishable by life sentence in prison aka 3 strikes.
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Great work Hilary and a huge thank you for always being there for our equine friends.
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Just want to say THANK YOU for any and all that do this kind of investigative work. Truly it is a small percentage of hard working folks that seek the facts and present them so the rest of us can learn and know the truth. Hats off to FRR for this information on Santos.
And as an Oklahoman I want to especially thank them for their FOIA report which revealed that a plant in Washington, OK had applied for a permit to slaughter horses last year. That plant (in OK) is just a few miles south of my sister’s place. 😦
Thank you again and PLEASE CONTINUE to do this kind of work. I know it’s hard and no one pays you to do it. But you are appreciated nonetheless!
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Great work! I could tell by the shady look on his face on that news report he was a thug! I like the 3 strikes thing! Sell him to slaughter! It’s what the BLM does to our Mustang!!!!!
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Great work indeed!!!! We are all not surprised…. How the USDA would even give this company another thought is beyound me with all the violations in the past one would think that would of been enough, now this!!! Boy this SHOULD seal the deal of shutting him down for good!!!! The waiting is horrible, not knowing…….
Just can’t even wrap my head around how horse slaughter in 2013 is STILL even an issue, NEED to stop this once and for all, it is way over due!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Scum bag rot in he**.. MURDERER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Reblogged this on angelfarm and commented:
How can this be allowed?
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Valley Meat sued the USDA in order to move its application faster so they could start slaughtering horses. The U.S. beef industry put in its intervention on behalf of Valley Meat! Beef sales are down so why are beef producers risking consumer confidence to prop up the marginal horse slaughter trade?
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Burglary and trespassing? And there’s no telling what kind of pedigree his employees might have.
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I KNOW its closed for now I LIVE in N.M. but he will try and get his way in getting it reopened. And Is suing to get it reopened. I WATCH our local news. He is just a low life when he can no longer slaughter beef. Dirty operations closed his place down!
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If he lied on the application then he should definitely be forbidden to open his slaughter house!!!!!!! they open it up and start killing these beautiful animals I for one will NOT eat anymore beef because to say horse meat will not end up in our beef supply in this country is a joke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Santos should not be allowed to breathe the air we breath…
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