Rick De Los Santos, Future NM Horse Slaughterer?

Front Range Equine Rescue is doing some good work to prevent a shady asshole, Rick De Los Santos, from reopening the Valley Meat Co slaughter plant in New Mexico in order to slaughter horses. You can see their press release here.

Front Range recently uncovered the fact that Los Santos lied on applications to re-open his slaughter plant. Front Range reports,

"On Valley Meat's December 2011 and March 2012 applications for inspection, when asked to list all of his felony convictions, State or Federal, Mr. De Los Santos falsely answered 'None.' In fact, Mr. De Los Santos has been convicted of two felonies, once for residential burglary and once for criminal trespass."

You might recognize the name "Valley Meat Co" from a recent scandal involving a video where a man mocks animal rights activists before shooting a horse. The man, Tim Sappington, made the video specifically to enrage horse lovers opposed to horse slaughter. Sappington was a maintenance contractor at Valley Meat. Sappington no longer works for Valley Meat, but the New Mexico company is hardly innocent, and seems to foster a workplace culture that encourages a total lack of empathy for animals.

“All you animal rights activists, fuck you!” -Sappington

In response to pressure from horse lovers, Valley Meat has hired a pet lawyer who seems to be sending out threatening letters. Valley Meat has sued multiple environmental and animal welfare activists for defamation when they pointed out the slaughter plant's dodgy activities. One of those was piling up dead dairy cattle behind the slaughter plant until the back fence line was hidden behind mounds of rotting carcasses (see the original Inspection report here). Valley Meat also recently sued the government for "dragging its feet" in approving the plant to start killing horses.

On Tuesday Valley Meat did finally pass its Inspection, and Rick De Los Santos is more than ready to go. He may get his wish. With AQHA in favor of horse slaughter, several Native American tribes including the Washington Yakimas supporting it, and Oklahoma set to eliminate the ban on it, there may be enough public pressure to provide the final push.

Folks, whether or not you agree with the necessity of horse slaughter, let's not have this guy be the one to start it up again, okay? He's obviously a douche of the worst kind. No, don't send him death threats. Some people have, and it isn't helping us animal lovers look like sane, reasonable people. Instead, contact at least one of these folks and tell them to stop Valley Meat Co:

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250

Susana Martinez, Governor of New Mexico
490 Old Santa Fe Trail, Rm. 400
Santa Fe, NM 87501
Telephone: (505) 476-2200

Read more about New Mexico horse slaughter here.

This is a good article too:

"Secretary Vilsack Says Another Option Needed for Unwanted Horses"

 You can also donate to Front Range here. They do a great job hiring lawyers and lobbyists to take legal action against animal abusers.