Tuesday, April 23, 2013

New Mexico Horse Meat Facility Moves a Step Closer to Operation


Amid the unfolding horse-meat scandal, a New Mexico slaughterhouse has moved closer to becoming the first in the United States since 2007 to be allowed to process horses for human consumption. “I am recommending to the Dallas district manager that your application be processed, and a grant of federal inspection be issued, provided you meet all other requirements for inspection,” Scott C. Safian, a director at the Agriculture Department, wrote in a letter dated April 13 to Ricardo De Los Santos, owner of the Valley Meat Company. Mr. De Los Santos has been seeking U.S.D.A. approval for his processing plant in Roswell, N.M., since December 2011. “Grants will not be issued until an establishment is able to produce a safe product in accordance with the Federal Meat Inspection Act,” said an Agriculture Department spokeswoman, Catherine Cochran. On Monday, an advocacy group for horses sent a letter to the U.S.D.A., asking it not to grant permission for Mr. De Los Santos to operate the facility because he had failed to disclose two felonies on his original application form, as well as on a second, subsequent form. “Is this really a guy we want to be operating a regulated business, one in which the U.S.D.A. will rely on his representations?” said Bruce A. Wagman, a lawyer representing Front Range Equine Rescue, the advocacy group. A. Blair Dunn, the lawyer representing Mr. De Los Santos, said Front Range had erroneously described a case of criminal trespassing as a felony. He said the issue was “another desperate attempt to degrade my clients” by Front Range and the Humane Society of the United States. “Everything regarding that information has been vetted” through the department’s food safety and inspection service “and has been certified by letter by U.S.D.A. to offer no impediment,” Mr. Dunn wrote in an e-mail...more

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You know the animal activists are ( WE THE PEOPLE'S ) voice 80% of us this is NOT just a moral or value's issue it is a statement on about what kind of society we are in which MONEY and GREED, corruption in so many forms!! Is the most important message not what is best to turn all this around, there are so many options for helping horses and ONE huge one is to regulate BREEDING since some of them seem not to be able to be responsible in that direction like AQHA who is a huge backer for horse slaughter>>>> LOOK WE all really no this is NOT about helping the horse not in anyway you must think everyone is completely stupid, MONEY for the FEW and torture for our horses!!!
I am telling you I am so so angry and disgusted 2013 and still we have people who want this SHAME on them all, God will take care of them down the road, it is after all God's creatures put on this earth to WHAT torture I don't think so!!!