Charges laid in case of stolen horses sold to slaughterhouse

Kathy O’Reilly doesn’t hesitate when asked how much a thief made for selling her two beloved horses to a southern Alberta slaughterhouse.

“After all the years they lived with me, all they were worth was $800 in horse flesh,” said the former Pincher Creek resident, who now lives on Vancouver Island.

“I haven’t cried yet because I think if I start, I might not ever stop.”

On Wednesday, Mounties charged a Drayton Valley man with the theft of O’Reilly’s prized pair of Arabianbred horses, Cocoa and Bella, from the stable that they had been boarding at. The animals were later sold to a slaughterhouse where they were ultimately destroyed.

Raymond RCMP, along with the Alberta RCMP livestock investigator, determined that a man not known to O’Reilly had taken the horses from the stable in Stirling, about 250 kilometres southeast of Calgary, to a processing facility in Fort Macleod.

Investigators allege the accused falsified a livestock manifest and Equine Information Document to indicate that he was the lawful owner.

O’Reilly said the accused is the former partner of the woman who owned the boarding facility in Sterling, who died early last month, prompting the need to move her horses, both of which she’d owned for around 20 years.

But when O’Reilly ’s daughter arrived Saturday to move the horses to a new facility in Waterton, she was told that they had been taken and were en route to a processing plant in Fort Macleod.

By Monday, police had confirmed O’Reilly’s worst fears.

Wayne Jubb, 76, is charged with livestock theft, trafficking stolen property and forgery. He is scheduled to appear in Lethbridge provincial court May 23.

Most troubling for O’Reilly is the apparent ease with which the accused was able to unload her horses. “To think they were slaughtered the same day they were brought in is very disturbing,” she said.

O’Reilly said she has been in

After all the years they lived with me, all they were worth was $800 in horse flesh.

touch with her area MP and has launched an online petition at change.org to change equine slaughter laws in Canada to make them more stringent.

Former Alberta resident Kathy O’Reilly with her two horses, which were allegedly stolen and sold to a slaughterhouse.