Firm drops plan for horse abattoir in southern Mo., but says it will start operations in state's southwest

Unified Equine LLC, which Brownfield Ag News calls "a new management and marketing firm," says it is looking at southwest Missouri for the first commercial horse-slaughter plant in the U.S. after Congress lifted a four-year effective ban on such abattoirs last fall.

Company spokesman Sue Wallis announced at a public meeting in Mountain Grove, Mo. (Google map), last night that it had abandoned a plan to convert an old warehouse in the town, reports Paul Friswold of the Riverfront Times of St. Louis.

"Unified Equine is determined to build their plant in southwestern Missouri, because of its easy access to highways and its plentiful supply of horses," Friswold writes. "And you need a lot of horses when you're planning to process 200 per shift."

Asked where the plant will be, Wallis told Friswold, "Might be really close to Mountain Grove, might be a ways away, but it will be in southwest Missouri." Friswold reports she left Monday night's crowd "with this parting shot: 'Discussion's over. Make all the noise you want. We're going into business.'" (Read more)
"Wallis is a Wyoming state representative who formed the group United Horsemen to urge Congress to restore domestic horse processing in the U.S.," Brownfield's Julie Harker reports. Kim F. Miller of California Riding magazine writes, "The five-year-old organization is staging its second annual Summit Of The Horse in Oklahoma City April 2-5 and the slaughter discussion is sure to be the gathering's hot-button issue." (Read more)