Alabama veterinary student arrested, accused of selling rescue horses to slaughterhouses in Mexico
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fallon Blackwood is accused of selling rescue horses to slaughterhouses. (Blount County Jail)
A third-year veterinary school student in Alabama was arrested Saturday after allegedly promising to care for rescue horses but instead selling them to slaughterhouses in Mexico.
Fallon Blackwood, 24, was taken into custody at a rodeo in Blount County, Ala., three months after she was indicted on 13 counts for bringing into the state property obtained by false pretense elsewhere.
The 24-year-old was also arrested at a veterinary school in Macon County, Ala. eight months ago on an outstanding North Carolina warrant on similar charges, according to the Birmingham News.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FLORIDA DEPUTY FIRED AFTER MULTIPLE FALSE DRUG ARRESTS, 9 RELEASES, OFFICIALS SAY
Blackwood is accused of telling owners of older horses that she would take their horses to live on her farm in Boaz, Ala., according to the criminal complaint obtained by FOX5.
But many of the owners said instead of providing a place of refuge, the 24-year-old sold the horses to slaughterhouses in Mexico for meat. They filed complaints with authorities after Blackwood could not account for their horses.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fallon Blackwood walks into the Macon County, AL courthouse in October after authorities in North Carolina issued a warrant for obtaining property under false pretenses. (FOX5)
"They suffered a death that they didn't deserve," former Georgia resident Lisa Rudolph told FOX5. "And I think they were slaughtered."
Rudolph told FOX5 after reviewing Blackwood's credentials -- a third-year student at Tuskegee College of Veterinary Medicine -- she gave her a horse named Cocoa and a mini-mule called Tibby in 2017 with the understanding she would retrieve them after she finished her move to Florida. She never saw her horses again.
"I would never have given my animals to anybody had they not represented what she represented," Rudolph told FOX5. "It was all deceptive and a lie. I'm hoping that now justice will be done."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BEST-SELLING FANTASY AUTHOR ACCUSES HUSBAND OF TRYING TO POISON HER
Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey would not confirm to FOX5 that the horses were brought to Mexico, but acknowledged that the hoses were most likely not alive.
"I have lots of animals," she told the television station. "And I can see if you thought someone was taking an animal to rehome it and found out later that something else happened that you'd be upset."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
After her arrest on Saturday, the 24-year-old bonded out of jail. Tuskegee told FOX5 it would not comment on her status citing privacy laws, but students told the television station she was seen back on campus and is expected to graduate in May.