On March 22, 2013, The Associated Press reported that a meat company employee in New Mexico had videotaped himself shooting a horse in the head as he swore at animal activists who were harassing him at his job.
The man was an employee of Valley Meat Co., which has been fighting the Department of Agriculture for approval to convert its former cattle slaughter facility into a horse slaughterhouse. Animal activists opposed the move and apparently took it out on employees there.
The video actually was posted in 2012. It created an uproar after animal activists found it in March 2013.
According to AP, Tim Sappington of Dexter led a seemingly healthy horse to a spot in a dirt road, then shot the horse after saying: “All you animal activists, (expletive) you.” He captured it all on video, though I’m not sure how he did that.
Clearly, this is not a horse lover. Nor a good employee, if he thought that through. It only made the battle more challenging for the meat company, and the man was let go from his job once the video came to light.
While the local sheriff said his department would investigate whether this was a case of animal abuse, he also said that shooting a horse was not illegal.
And there is the problem. People can perform this simple, deadly, final act anywhere they want.
At the end of the day, horses are at the mercy of this grossly unfair law. The horse could not drag the guy out in front of a video camera and shoot him and then post the shooting on YouTube. But apparently U.S. law finds nothing wrong with the reverse scenario.