Charges have been laid after a man is alleged to have sold two horses for slaughter without the owner’s consent.

RCMP in Raymond, Alta., have charged Wayne Jubb with theft, trafficking stolen property and uttering forged documents. He is scheduled to appear in Lethbridge court May 23.

The matter arose when RCMP were informed April 28 that a woman had been boarding two horses at a Stirling, Alta., area farm for five years.

According to RCMP, the woman had been told April 9 that the owner of the farm where the horses were boarded had died and another place for the animals had to be found.

The woman and her family found another boarding site. On April 28, the owner’s daughter came to get the horses and was told by Jubb that he had sold them.

Upon investigation, and with assistance from the southern Alberta RCMP livestock investigator and the Alberta livestock inspector, police learned the horses had been sold to the horse slaughter plant in Fort Macleod, Alta., and had been processed.

Jubb is alleged to have falsified a livestock manifest and ownership papers when transporting and selling the horses to the plant.