Front Range Equine Rescue Discovers Would-Be Horse Slaughterer Falsified Federal Application, Has Committed Multiple Felonies.
(April 22, 2013)— Front Range Equine Rescue (“FRER”) notified the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) that the owner of Valley Meat Company, in Roswell, New Mexico, recently made blatantly false statements about his criminal record on two applications to begin slaughtering healthy American horses. If USDA grants Valley Meat’s application, it will be condoning the kind of conduct that jeopardizes the health and safety of consumers, increases the chances of horse meat showing up in American beef, and threatens the integrity of the federal meat inspection system.
In the past seventeen months, Valley Meat has submitted to USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (“FSIS”) three applications so that Valley Meat can begin slaughtering horses. On two of these applications, Mr. De Los Santos committed federal felonies when he falsely stated that he had no criminal history of felony convictions. The third application, submitted in March 2013, confirms his criminal history…