Rumors of Nev. Horse Slaughterhouse Untrue

April 1, 2008

CARSON CITY, Nev. -- Rumors that a horse slaughter facility is slated for construction in Carson City, Nev. are false according to City Planning Director Lee Plemel.

Nevada Appeal reported today that rumors of a new facility emerged among concerned horse lovers in northern California over the weekend. Those rumblings lead to a call to Plemel’s office and from there, the snowball grew.

By Monday, Sen. John Ensign R-Nev. and Nevada Appeal had been called as well.

“The official word is that we have not received any inquiries from anybody asking to open such facility,” said Plemel. “It’s all speculation based on rumors.”

A few online forums contributed to the rumor -- further spreading it across the Internet. Apparently, Arabianbreeders.net and Joe Shelton, with a horse rescue group based in Woodland, Calif., and online at tbfriends.com, are part of the fuel that flamed the fire that has burned across the U.S. in the last two days.

Carrie Gobernatz, national news editor for Horse Talk, also got wind of the news. Her publication is in Texas, where she has worked to close two horse slaughterhouses in Texas and one in Illinois.

“It's upsetting when you are working so hard to shut the three places down," she said. "There's been a couple of different rumors."

Late last year, the Humane Society of the United States reported that the last remaining horse slaughterhouse in the U.S. had been shut down. The Illinois-based facility marked the end of an era when animals that are commonly viewed as pets could be killed for human consumption.

Before slaughter houses closed in the U.S., equine meat was routinely sold to foreign markets. Even though the consumption of the meat was illegal domestically, Belgium was the foremost importer of American horse meat.

Mexico has taken over the trade where U.S. companies left off, importing thousands of unwanted horses across the border for slaughter.

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Matt Van Hoven, Pet Pulse, and Karen Woodmansee, Nevada Appeal, contributed to this story.