Source: the Equine Welfare Alliance
“In reality, the plant faced strong opposition from the state level all the way to the Obama administration…”
Rick De Los Santos’ plan to butcher companion, American horses was in itself, axed.
CHICAGO, (EWA) – Following an extended legal battle, Blair Dunn, the attorney for the Valley Meats slaughter plant in Roswell, New Mexico, today submitted a letter to the state Environmental Department withdrawing the plant’s application for a permit to operate a waste water discharge lagoon. The action would appear to mark the end of plans to reopen the former cattle slaughterhouse to slaughter horses, and takes place only a week before the final report of the hearing officer was to be released.
The plan to reopen the cattle plant as a horse slaughter plant had begun in 2011, following congressional reinstatement of USDA funding for required antemortem inspections. However, since the hearing in October of 2013, other setbacks had made the plant’s opening problematic. In January the omnibus budget had restored the prohibition on spending for inspections, and the 2015 appropriations bills in the Senate and House have continued that prohibition.
The battle over the issuance of the required permit was one of several legal struggles facing the plant. Additionally, the hearing officer had indicated that she intended to recommend against the permit on the basis of the history of violations by owner De Los Santos, when Valley Meats was slaughtering cattle.
At the time Valley Meats announced its intentions to slaughter horses it had been one of five plants with such plans. With the withdrawal of the application, Valley Meats appears to be the last to give up.
Dunn’s letter sites the “predatory litigation” brought by the New Mexico Attorney General’s office as well as the Humane Society and Front Range Equine Rescue as further reasons for the withdrawal.
EWA’s John Holland, who testified against the plant at the October hearing, explained “In reality, the plant faced strong opposition from the state level all the way to the Obama administration where Vice President Biden and Agriculture Secretary Vilsack had strongly opposed the return of plants to the US.”
The last three horse slaughter plants in the US closed in 2007, but horses have continued to go to Mexico and Canada for slaughter. Almost 153,000 horses were exported to slaughter last year.
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Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Let the dancing hyenas trot back to their holes with their tails between their legs as there are no foals or colts to tear apart this day. Strong men and great women stood up and said “there will be no horse blood sold here on this land !”
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All I can say is boohoo to Valley Meats. They can whine and pitch fits all they want but they have met their match with us. We will not let this fight idly be pushed aside.
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Good news continues albeit only until next year.
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Two wild horses die at Utah roundup
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/58245670-78/horses-blm-wild-utah.html.csp
By kristen moulton
| The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Jul 31 2014
An agitated young wild horse alone in a corral apparently charged into a side panel and broke her neck after being rounded up on Utah’s west desert, Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Lisa Reid said.
The yearling filly died instantly and the BLM also had to euthanize a 7-year-old mare with a severely deformed leg from a previous fracture, Reid said.
Both deaths — unusual during Utah’s wild horse roundups — occurred Wednesday, the third day of the BLM’s Blawn Wash gather in the Wah Wah Mountains of Beaver County, about 35 miles southwest of Milford
The 141 horses were trucked to the Central Utah Correctional Facility at Gunnison, where they’ll be examined, vaccinated and prepared for adoption. The prison inmates may keep some for training.
Even with 143 horses removed, Gus Warr, the agency’s manager for wild horses and burros in Utah, figured more than 100 would remain in the Blawn Wash area. Utah has nearly 4,000 wild horses, more than double the number the BLM has set as the upper limit.
Ranchers in the region sued the BLM, and county commissioners in Iron and Beaver counties threatened their own roundups if the agency did not reduce the numbers of wild horses.
Besides the Blawn Wash roundup, the BLM has trapped 25 horses and intends to trap 25 more when they go for water on private land in Iron County. The agency also plans to remove 30 from along State Road 21 in Beaver County, near Nevada, on Friday.
The plan was to remove only 10, but the Utah BLM recently got approval from Washington to remove 20 more from the Sulphur herd. Warr saw 140 horses near the highway on Sunday, Reid said.
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Happy happy happy!!!!!
WooooHoooo!!!
Just keep an eye on this plant & on him…I got the feeling it might b a bluff
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Reblogged this on Pass the SAFE Act! and commented:
Hallelujah! So very happy to see this cruel business disappear all together.
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Reblogged this on "OUR WORLD".
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All I can say at this point is I would have enjoyed trucking 141 of the BLM to Canada…………………… As for the Butcher of New Mexico good ridence to bad trash !!!!! Sharon is right keep our eyes on him…….. RIP Little filly and Mare !!!!! (many tears in your Honor )
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141 horses – there was not room for 141 horses – and the ranchers sued to have privately owned property removed – read this report on buffalo being reintroduced – this is the nuts running the nut house. http://blogwest.org/2014/07/15/where-the-buffalo-may-roam
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This has been over.
There is no maybe about it. It will remain a dead issue as long as we continue to fight it. This is another one of APs Blair Dumb propaganda articles.
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Sounds like DeLosSantos is being left holding the bag by his Belgium-backers, now that the European Union is pulling away from American Drug-tainted horsemeat. The State of NM will be left with clean-up of a polluted mess and blood-lagoons, while DeLosSantos high-tails it off to Mexico to work at the horror- houses there.
Thanks to Atty Gen. Gary King for keeping horsemeat off our shelves.
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Just when you thought there was no good news to be had! Yay! This plant faced many obstacles.
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So withdrawal is not a sign of defeat. Only withdrawal. I am waiting for the latest approach. I am hesitant to believe that they are really backing out as much as they are regrouping. Usually with slaughter they will back up and they plow forward with broken wheels and all dragging a broken wagon behind them through a landscape looking like its out of a mad mad movie into another beautiful area to diminish. So yay. BUT Whats up the sleeve. They were attempting to find a way out of the lawsuit in order to file another of their own so this may only be the start of a means to another end. Dont think that when they back off an inch they wont tear the wheels off moving that wagon forward the next mile. Its written all over the BLM….they are pressing for this plants hard. We pressed back harder….but trickery…manipulation…and changing the game is constant on the proslaughter side. When they ALTERED the Definition of bute for slaughter for meat horses that was a HUGE trick in the Veterinary books online 2013 copyright. I am leary of takjng this EPA loss as nothing other than another ploy. So no real cheers yet.
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VICTORY! 🙂 Okay, on to the next battle. The war isn’t over yet I’m sure.
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Reblogged this on cindymendoza47.
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Who’s inciting and perpetuating these lies? He’s now on to animal meat like zoos like bravo. No environmental permit needed. Wake up world
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Send this Rick Santos to slaughter !
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I think he should wear the hat anyways. We STILL have battles with proslaughter ahead of us as each one exhausts other plans are in the midst. Sue for every wild horses safety now because they are going for the tribe having a plant unsupervised by the USDA and I cannot put my mind around the Extent of the Horrors in any plant without USDA oversight. Please please pressure theSaFE Act because they stalled the Past Act. It showd Abuse in Our Industry by the few who condone it is Alive and well. I May not be an advocate as a few advocates have stated but have privey to alot of things happening inside the industry over the decades. While we temporarily closed our shop to assist with stopping slaughter by educating the public we have gained more feedback on why people believe proslaughters lies. So each person advocate or Not has a Iron in this fire. I FOR ONE AND UP FOR THE NEXT ROUND IN THIS FIGHT. We have so much to gain from our efforts….knowing that we saved the many while we mourned those lost. We gain friends around the World. We work together on one of the most important issues in the world….not for ourselves….not for credit…but for those who cannot speak. Our gain is their lives. Thats more than enough reason to fight even more. Mr Hardhat is out but we still have others that are in. So keep fighting…. My letter to him said it all last year I think….WE THE PEOPLE ARE AGAINST THIS.
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Yes what you wanted to do to them as un-fare treatment to the horses, they are not food and you were going to slaughter them and sell them to over seas to people who cold eat them and might have drugs given to horses when they are sick that can get people sick from eating them…. Not a smart move to make for any one. Who was going to make money for this? Vally Meat Cmpany …..
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So now we just have to STOP the production of 153,000 horses a year.
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