Breaking News FRONT RANGE EQUINE RESCUE DISCOVERS DOCUMENTED EFFORTS TO BEGIN HORSE SLAUGHTER IN MISSOURI

Front Range Equine Rescue

June 5, 2012 (Larkspur, Colorado) – Front Range Equine Rescue (FRER) has discovered that Unified Equine, LLC has applied to the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to begin the slaughter of thousands of American horses at a plant in Rockville, Missouri. Despite Unified Equine’s extensive efforts to hide the location of the site of their newest effort to begin slaughtering America’s horses, FRER has obtained this information, and will now begin legal and community-based efforts with other groups across the country to prevent the opening of this slaughterhouse. FRER will also continue its parallel efforts to end the slaughter of American horses for human consumption once and for all.
Horse slaughter for food is a national disgrace, given the fact American horses are not raised as a food animal and the especially brutal methods used to kill them. FRER has mounted an extensive legal battle to keep American horses from being slaughtered for food, in or out of the country, in light of last November’s Congressional appropriation of funding for horse meat inspections. In the last few months, along with the Humane Society of the United States, FRER has filed two Petitions for Rulemaking [http://www.frontrangeequinerescue.org/front-range-equine-rescue-horse-slaughter.php] asking the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the FSIS to enact rules and regulations which would prevent American horses from being slaughtered due to the toxic nature of horse meat. FRER has also approached the New Mexico state government regarding multiple, years-long environmental violations by Valley Meat in Roswell, New Mexico, which is also attempting to begin horse slaughter. FRER’s efforts have attracted national attention, and FRER intends to continue to amplify its legal strategy for as long as it takes to eliminate the possibility of horse slaughter in America and prevent horses from slaughter across its borders.
The application for the Missouri plant states that it intends to open in September 2012, so FRER is acting quickly to prevent any chance of Unified Equine reaching its goal. There has been no U.S. horse slaughter since it was eliminated five years ago; a recent poll shows at least 80% of Americans oppose horse slaughter. Every effort to begin this brutal practice will be fought, and the corporate interests anxious to make a buck off the backs of former work, competition, companion and wild horses will be exposed. The USDA and FDA have documentation as to the danger and illegality of producing horse meat from American horses. FRER calls on all concerned citizens and groups to support its efforts by contacting state, local and federal officials and voicing strong objections to the resumption of this horrific practice in America. For more information on how to help, contact info@frontrangeequinerescue.org