Auctioneer 1st Man Charged Under California Law To Protect Horses From Slaughter

MADERA (KPIX 5) — They were called Lacey and Squirt, two professional rodeo horses and beloved pets. But they ended up sold for meat on someone’s dinner plate overseas.

In a landmark case, a suspect has been charged with delivering at least one of them to slaughter.

The case is the talk of the town in Madera. Sheriff John Anderson has arrested a well-known businessman for an almost unheard of crime. “He will be treated no differently than anyone else,” Anderson said.

Billy Ray Brown Jr., son of the owner of the local B and B Livestock auction, is accused of sending a horse called Lacey out of state to slaughter for human consumption.

That is a felony in California. A law was passed in 1998 to protect horses. This is the first time that it has ever been enforced.

So how did he get Lacey? Detective Adam McEwen said his investigation started when Lacey’s owner reported her and another horse, Squirt, missing. He said California is one of the only states that bans shipping horses here. And yet in 2013 over 140,000 horses went to slaughter, and many of those horses came from California. Squirt is still missing.

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RESOURCE: June 7, 2014, San Franscisco CBS, KPIX TV, Story by Elizabeth Cook, http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/06/05/auctioneer-1st-man-charged-under-california-law-to-protect-horses-from-slaughter-horsemeat-food-slaughterhouse-billy-ray-brown-jr-summer-rose-tex-lacey-madera-b-and-b-livestock-auction/

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