By Milan Simonich as published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
“Attorney for Plant continues to Whine”
A state district judge issued a preliminary injunction Friday night against a horse-slaughter plant in New Mexico.
It was another setback, perhaps a fatal one, for Valley Meat Co., which for two years has been the target of lawsuits and heavy public opposition. The company wants to kill horses and sell the meat in foreign markets.
Judge Matthew Wilson of Santa Fe granted the injunction against the company. He accepted state Attorney General Gary King’s arguments that Valley Meat would harm the environment and contaminate the food chain.
Wilson’s ruling came after a confusing afternoon, in which he first issued an order saying he would hold a hearing on whether he should remove himself from the case because of challenges to his impartiality.
Lawyers for the slaughterhouse had filed an emergency motion asking Wilson to recuse himself. They said the judge had a conflict of interest that he failed to disclose, and that his Facebook page showed evidence of bias against Valley Meat Co.
Blair Dunn, a lawyer for Valley Meat Co., said Wilson had ties to King’s office but never mentioned them when hearing King’s lawsuit against the company.
“We learned [Friday] that Judge Wilson up until 2010 worked as a special assistant attorney general assigned to the New Mexico Human Services Department. It was inappropriate that he failed to disclose that,” Dunn said.
A few hours after Wilson said he would hold a recusal hearing on whether he should be on the case, he ruled against the slaughterhouse and for the attorney general…(CONTINUED)
Click (HERE) to read the rest of the story and to comment on Valley Meat’s doomed argument
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Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Yes.. Yes..
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I am glad that the slaughterhouse will not open. Now we just have to make sure that the horses are not sent overseas !!!
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Finally! Now to keep tabs on people sending them to Mexico or Canada. Hopefully this will NOT happen.
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I wonder if atty. Dunn is on Facebook? I would like to say hello……
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Now, Michelle – is that ALL you want to say? I think we all would like to say something to Dunn.
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Has someone finally seen the light? The facts and the truth are out there regarding Kaufman, Texas and DeKalb, Illinois. The environment was damaged. Also, the few stolen horses that were recovered before they were slaughtered. Thanks to one USDA inspector a beautiful copper colored mare and paint foal which was delivered at the plant were saved -copp errr penny was the name given to her and Justin time for the beautiful colt by the rescue. Slaughter plants are friends to no one! This judge regardless has made the appropriate and legal decision. Now I suppose this guy will try and sue for some stupid reason to recoup some of his legal fees. Let the Europeans raise their own equines for munching. We must also stop the premarin/prempro mares and the resulting foals from being slaughtered too. As horse warriors, we will see this come about.
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If the Santa Fe New Mexican were to post just one picture of the grisly-horror that was Valley Meat (when it was a Beef Operation) there would be not one sane person in New Mexico who would back Valley Meat. Behind the facility there were 40 foot long , 15ft. high mountains of rotting carcasses and offal that “moved with maggots” according to a USDA Chief! Now we can only hope that the New Mexico Environmental Department will do their job and shut De Los Santos down PERMANENTLY in the State of NM.
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Reblogged this on "OUR WORLD".
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Can anyone find the whole article? Looks like you have to log in just to read the danged article! Only 10 comments, wonder why…
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Blair Dunn evidently was arguing for slaughtering of wild horses? As I understand it this is still a felony (unless they come off the Rez maybe). Hope the transcript will show up somewhere to clarify….
I found this bit of summary:
“Benny House, the Otero County sheriff, also testified for the company. He said the number of abandoned horses in his area is escalating.”
“One of Dunn’s broad arguments for the plant is that the number of wild horses in America has increased since horse slaughter was halted seven years ago.”
SOURCE: http://www.horsesforlife.org/news–blog.html
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This subject came up yesterday in regards to a plant elsewhere. What I was told is this: there are no rules about horse slaughter on resversations land. BUT they can’t move that meat cross state lines without inspections–so any plant would regardless where they are located would still fall into the inspection clause.
Out here you can go to casinos owned by Native Americans. That isn’t the problem. If they open a slaughter plant could they blindside innocent folks with wild horsemeat (say from Sheldon)like they did in Europe? Not saying they would but the possibility exists…
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Margaret, from what little I could read it seemed like Mr. Dunn was arguing that it was a hardship for folks on the Rez if we didn’t subsidize a slaughter plant to help them out. Can’t see any good incentives for American taxpayers to subsidize a disposal system for a sovereign nation, to sell meat for export. $400k in subsidies for inspections to produce a handful of jobs in a sordid industry doesn’t appeal much to me… and millions of other taxpayers.
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Go away NM horse slaughter plant we do not want our American horses slaughtered anywhere so move on!
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The sheriff must be repeating the same BS that had been floating around the country about all of the abandoned horses that no one can seem to find. The pro-slaughter wing nuts have peddled this one for years. I just want to remind anyone that has Senator John Cornyn TX for state senator that this man is 100% against stopping US horses from being shipped across both borders to be killed. According to the letter he wrote me several years ago when he was on a committee that he will not sigh on to cosponsor the anti-slaughter bill that was gathering dust at that time. He stated that the bill if passed would would prevent the owner of a horse to do with the animal as they pleased. This man is one of the very people that has worked for years to kill any bill presented the would stop horses being shipped out of the country to be slaughtered in Canada/Mexico. He has all of the ranchers in TX on his side plus numerous special interests that include the racing industry, and the quarter horse breeders that donate to him using lobbyists to make the rounds of the senate offices.The donations he is given run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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Then I think it’s important to print out EWA’s report on GAO 2011 where John Holland TOTALLY destroyed all previous reports.
Instead of arguing pro or con on SAFE Act ask the person to list their reasons why they are against SAFE Act. Think of it as eating a pie–one bite at a time. Then in turn you list question 1 thru ??? and show them supporting documents that renders their opposition as silly.
Don’t use arguements like “Go Vegan”. I’m sorry, I’m not and it makes kinda crazy to see that as an arguement for SAFE Act. I’d be much more interested in seeing documents that show the dangers of Bute, how China has sent us poisonous dog food and toys painted with too much lead. Why we want to set an example nd not fall into the same category as China.
I appreciate my fellow advocates no matter if your vegan or carnivore. I think it’s safe to say that as carnivores (and I know we have more than two here)we want and need to know that in those last moments animals are being treated kindly, with care and dignity. That they arent being used and abused as we have so often seen. There is much work that needs to be addressed here also.
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The progress in stopping any USA horse slaughter plants opening is truly encouraging. It would also be an added bonus if the SAFE Act passes. Now..let’s think about how we are going to distribute the saved horse’s. It will be up to each and everyone of us who oppose horse slaughter plants to take a stand and help those who cannot or will not take care of the horse’s that are here in the US. It is not reasonable to expect rescue organizations to handle the thousands of “unwanted” horse’s. There’s already rescue organizations who visit auctions and save the few they can but this will have to be stepped up. It doesn’t cost that much to purchase these horse’s and it’s on FB everyday what’s available, with location and costs provided. Stopping horse slaughter plants is the main objective but we will have to consider the consequences and solutions also.
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Valley Meat should give up there fight to kill horses. I guess they don’t get it. Maybe Valley Meats should slaughter chickens instead.
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No more slaughter period. Valley Meats should be hung by its neck and bled to death. Done deal . No more killing of our horses, Stop horse slaughter forever. We are working on this, yes. Amen. Stop all wild horse round ups, stop transport of all horses across state lines and country lines now. Stop helicopter round ups now.
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No USDA fund… Bye bye Valley Meat and Sue Wallis along with all the pro-slaughter group eat all the toxic meat you want… Next up is the SAFE bill to stop all the greedy people from the horse industry you need to stop breeding.
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Give it up Attorney Dunn. Go find another client to work for. Do you really think that Valley Meat Co. will pay you.
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