Photo: Blount County Sheriff’s Office
An Alabama veterinary student faces charges after horses she offered to board apparently vanished — and former owners and a sheriff believe she sold the animals to slaughterhouses for meat.
Fallon Danielle Blackwood, 24, who attends Tuskegee University, was arrested last weekend after being indicted on 13 counts of bringing property obtained under false pretenses into Alabama, Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey tells PEOPLE.
According to Casey, Blackwood offered to “re-home horses” for owners who could no longer care for them. But when the owners tried to check in on their horses, they discovered “that wasn’t what was taking place,” says Casey, who adds that the 13 horses specified in the indictment are now likely dead.
Owner Lindsay Rosentratertold Al.comthat Blackwood agreed to board her horse, but that when she later asked for a photo of the animal, “she wouldn’t send me one. I asked her repeatedly.”
“We have pretty strong indications [her horse] did get shipped into Mexico for slaughter,’’ Rosentrater told the outlet.
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Lisa Rudolph, another owner who said she entrusted her horse to Blackwood,told Fox 5 Atlanta, “They suffered a death that they didn’t deserve,” adding, “I think they were slaughtered.”
At the time, Macon County sheriff Andre Brunson told WHNT owners of the horses involved in the charges were upset. “Thinking their horses were living their life out and then to find out they were slaughtered for different purposes, so it’s just a bad case,” he said.
“I would be absolutely devastated if I was in a situation where I needed to rehome an animal and something like this happened,” Casey said.
Blackwood was released from the Blount County Jail after posting $15,000 bond and returned to veterinary school, Al.com reports.
A spokesman for Tuskegee University tells PEOPLE the school is prohibited from commenting on student enrollment status while the charges are pending.
It was not immediately clear if Blackwood has entered a plea to the charges in Blount County or retained an attorney who could comment on her behalf.
The disposition of the charges against Blackwood in North Carolina was not immediately clear.
source: people.com
