Tooele Valley Meat Slaughterhouse Owner Charged with Cruelty to Animals

For Immediate Release:
January 28, 2026

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

Ed Roberts, owner of Tooele Valley Meat slaughterhouse, was charged with aggravated cruelty to an animal following a November 5 incident in which he cut a hoof off a struggling, conscious steer—in defiance of a federal inspector’s repeated instructions to stun the steer first—then forced the suffering animal to walk on the stump of his leg before he was killed. PETA and another animal advocacy group, Animal Partisan, called for a criminal investigation and charges against Roberts after PETA obtained a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report detailing the incident. Please see the following statement from PETA Associate Director Colin Henstock:

Charging this slaughterhouse owner for hacking the hoof off a terrified steer before forcing him to walk on the raw stump of his leg is an important step toward obtaining a small measure of justice for the animal, whose final moments were agonizing. PETA thanks the Tooele County Sheriff’s Office and Tooele County Attorney for their work in this case, and urges everyone who is horrified by this cruelty to help prevent more animals from suffering in slaughterhouses by going vegan.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness and free Vegan Starter Kits for anyone thinking of making the switch. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.