Third horse slaughter business qualifies for USDA inspections

WRITTEN BY DAN FLYNN Cross-posted from Food Safety News A third business has met all the statutory and regulatory requirements to require USDA to provide inspection services when it begins processing horsemeat for human consumption. Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys representing USDA have informed the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico that…

New Mexico meat plant readies to slaughter horses in 3 weeks

The Washington Times reports: A lawyer for a New Mexico meat plant says it is only three weeks from becoming the first in the United States since 2007 to slaughter horses. “We’re getting ready to go,” A. Blair Dunn, attorney for Valley Meat Co. in Roswell, New Mexico, told Bloomberg News Friday. The plant may…

Washington lawmakers will try to ban the slaughter of US horses

A new bill called The Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act in the US House will not only ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption in the United States but also prohibit the live export of horses for the same purpose. Washington lawmakers Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-PA) and Rep. Jan…

Family gives up on horse slaughter plant in New Mexico

UPDATED 5:10 PM MILAN SIMONICH reporting for the Las Cruces Sun-News writes: SANTA FE — Entrepreneurs who wanted to slaughter horses and sell the meat in Europe suspended their plan Tuesday, complaining that the federal government stalled them into submission. Valley Meat Co., a family business near Roswell, gave up after four months of seeking…

Horse owners clubs urge Governor to support horse slaughter in New Mexico

Cross-posted from the Washington Post via The Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — [AP] A group of horse owners and clubs is urging the governor to support a proposed horse slaughterhouse in Roswell, saying the closing of domestic facilities five years ago has caused “needless suffering under the cruelest of conditions.” The New Mexico Horse Council,…

Recent test shows Canada sending toxic horse meat to Europeans but on it goes

Updated. Horse advocates have long warned that toxic horse meat from slaughtered American and Canadian horses is ending up on the dinner tables of Europe. In February 2010 a peer reviewed scientific study entitled "Bute and Slaughter Horses Toxicology Study" (pdf) branded USDA studies asserting U.S. and Canadian horse meat as chemically harmless as bogus.…

FOIA confirms Bouvry’s plans to re-open “Death Row for Horses”

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted to the U.S. Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), Animal Law Coalition has learned that Bouvry Exports, which has the largest horse slaughter operation in Canada, has obtained an application for FSIS inspections. Under the Federal Meat Inspection Act the inspections are required in the U.S.…

Horse slaughter plants looming

Horse slaughter plants looming. Not quite. Looming is perhaps too strong a word, but applications to slaughter horses in New Mexico and Missouri have been filed. WILLIAM PACK writing for My San Antonio reports: The U.S. Department of Agriculture should be ready to inspect plants that slaughter horses for human consumption by the end of…

Valley Meats slaughter plant in NM plans to butcher horses

FRONT RANGE EQUINE RESCUE DISCOVERS NEW MEXICO HORSE SLAUGHTER PLANT LARKSPUR, CO (April 10, 2012) — Through its own investigation, Front Range Equine Rescue (FRER) has discovered that Valley Meats Co., 3845 Cedarvale Rd, Roswell, NM, has applied for inspection of horses to be “custom slaughtered” and “processed” for human consumption. According to the facts…

USDA skirts horse meat ban

Sweeney calls Agriculture Department's action a 'defiance' of Congress HILLSDALE (24 Jan 2006) -- Rep. John E. Sweeney (R-20th) joined 39 colleagues in the U.S. House and Senate in a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns, January 17, to remind him that a bi-partisan majority of both parties in both the House and the…