Owner of New Mexico meat packing plant defends horse slaughter plan

The owner of a New Mexico slaughterhouse is defending his plan to become the first plant in the nation since 2007 to handle horses after an outcry from politicians and animal activists. In interviews with the Roswell Daily Record and the Albuquerque Journal on Friday, Valley Meat Co. owner Rick De Los Santos said he’s trying to revive his failing business and that what he’s proposing is legal. If his application to the USDA is approved, De Los Santos said horse meat will be exported to Mexico and be for Mexican consumption. He said the exportation of horse carcasses might be a better option than exporting live horses to Mexico, which involves holding the horses at the border. De Los Santos also said horse slaughter methods in Mexico may be less humane than in the U.S. “There’s no regulation as to how they (slaughter horses) in Mexico,” De Los Santos told the Daily Record. “It’s nowhere close to the USDA standards.” De Los Santos said the official number for live American horses exported to other countries for slaughter is 100,000; but the figure may be closer to 130,000. “All I’m saying is we can take some of those and slaughter them here,” De Los Santos told the Journal. The company, which has a 7,290 square-foot plant on a 10-acre site, has been slaughtering cattle for about 20 years, but has recently been unable to continue doing business because the cost of cattle has risen dramatically with the recession. The company that once had 40 to 45 employees is currently not operating. Slaughtering horses, De Los Santos said, might be the only way to save his company. He laid off his last 10 employees three weeks ago. “All we’re doing is trying to make a living,” he said. “My whole life is invested in this business.” He said he was unaware until recently that, if approved, his company would be the only slaughterhouse in the U.S. to slaughter equines...more

See my previous post here.