Redwood Meat Co. is located in Myrtletown, just east of Eureka, at 3114 Moore Avenue. | Photo by Ryan Burns.

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Ray Christie. | Detail of image provided by Larson LLP, the firm representing Christie in his federal civil rights suit.

Nearly two years after the abrupt closure of Humboldt County’s only USDA-certified slaughterhouse and meat processing facility, local beef producers say Redwood Meat Co. will soon reopen under new majority owner Raymond Frank Christie, an Arcata rancher who has been accused and prosecuted for multiple counts of animal cruelty, though never convicted.

The Outpost has been unable to reach Christie for this story. (He didn’t respond to multiple voicemails and texts, and just today he told courts blogger John Chiv that he won’t comment until Redwood Meat is “close to opening.”)

But several local beef producers say Christie has declared his intention to reopen the facility in the coming weeks or months.

Megan Kenney, director of the Harvest Hub program for the North Coast Growers’ Association, said Christie was among the attendees of a June 2 gathering of the North Coast Meat Processing Collaborative, a group that includes meat producers, buyers and support entities. Participants discussed a recently published industry analysis and worked to identify the region’s most urgent needs and next steps. 

Kenney said Christie attended the first half of the meeting and discussed his plans for Redwood Meat.

“He said it should be up and running sometime over the summer, like in the next couple months,” Kenney said.

Clint Victorine, owner of Eel River Organic Beef, said it could be even sooner.

“Ray’s been telling me two to three weeks,” Victorine said when reached by phone on Friday. “He said he’d give me a tour.”

Christie also told attendees at the June 2 meeting that he’s been able to retain many of the trained staff members who worked for the Nylander family, which operated Redwood Meat for roughly seven decades, and that he’s purchased a lot of new equipment for the facility, Kenney said.

“Redwood Meat had been grandfathered in,” she added, referring to outdated equipment that was nevertheless given a pass by USDA inspectors since the facility had been operating continuously for so long. “After being closed down for a period, [Redwood Meat] was required to get new equipment,” Kenney said.

Humboldt County Planning and Building Director John Ford said Redwood Meat is going through a building plan check and will not need to obtain a permit to reopen.

“There is no Conditional Use Permit on the use of the property,” Ford said via email. “It has been there long enough to be considered a Legal Non-conforming use. It can be maintained and modified but not expanded and maintain that legal non-conforming status.”

Historically, Redwood Meat has primarily slaughtered and processed beef, lamb and hogs. Kenney said her understanding is that when the facility reopens, it will be licensed to process and retain the full carcasses of all animals under 30 months old. (When animals older than 30 months are slaughtered, the facility must retain the skull and spinal cord due to USDA food safety regulations.) Retaining the offal and other parts of younger livestock will reduce food waste and allow local farmers to retain more of their animals than before, Kenney said.

“[Christie] said that was something he’s very proud of,” she added.

However, it remains unclear how Christie will attract enough business to make a profit. When the Nylanders shut the place down in 2024, owner/operators Ryan and John “Punk” Nylander said the operation had long been financially “marginal” and finally buckled under rising costs for essentials such as insurance, water and utilities.

Furthermore, many local ranchers and their customers are wary of Christie and his reputation, given his history of animal neglect and abuse allegations. In 2009 he stood trial on charges pertaining to organized cockfighting after animal control officers who searched his McKinleyville farm discovered nearly 1,400 roosters and 90 gaffs and knives, the kinds of weapons attached to birds’ legs during a fight.

The jury in that case failed to reach a verdict, resulting in a mistrial. Christie was subsequently charged with threatening to assault his brother, who was scheduled to testify against him in court.

Nine years later, a multi-agency law enforcement task force raided Christie’s ranch in the Arcata Bottoms. He was arrested and later tried in court for four felony counts of animal cruelty and 10 misdemeanor counts of dumping cattle carcasses within 150 feet of state waters. Once again, a mistrial was declared after a single juror refused to convict, though he was convicted of numerous misdemeanor counts for dumping carcasses near state waters.

A retrial was ordered on the four felony counts. That trial endured numerous delays as Christie dealt with a series of medical problems, including a heart condition and a basal cell carcinoma diagnosis that required multiple surgeries. Charges in this second trial were dropped in December 2023 after Christie’s attorney alleged various improprieties in the case, accusing prosecutors of evidence tampering and unconstitutional interrogation.

Christie later filed a federal civil rights suit accusing the County of Humboldt, Sheriff William Honsal, prosecutor Adrian Kamada and other county personnel of violating his constitutional rights. The county has filed a motion to dismiss the case. The next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 5.

While Christie has yet to be convicted of anything beyond misdemeanors, some local ranchers say they have no intention of doing business with him. When Redwood Meat closed down two years ago, local ranchers were forced to find alternatives, with most opting to work with meat processing facilities hundreds of miles away — businesses such as Yosemite Valley Beef in Merced, Star Harvest in Yreka and Certified Meats in Fresno.

Thomas Nicholson Stratton, co-owner of the regenerative ranching, dairy-farming and ice-cream-making Foggy Bottoms Boys, said he’s working with other local producers to collectively send beef products to and from Star Harvest in Yreka twice a month and currently has no intention of changing. 

Liz Klopper, who owns and operates Bear River Valley Beef with her husband Hugo, said they also plan on staying with Star Harvest. (She declined to offer a reason for the decision.)

Another meat local producer, who the Outpost spoke with on condition of anonymity, said they didn’t know of anybody at this point who would do business with Christie. Another noted that Christie could choose to import lower-quality animals to produce “commodity beef” but said it would be tough to compete with large-scale operations doing the same elsewhere in the state.

Still, Kenney suggested that the reopening of Redwood Meat could easily wind up benefiting the region.

“I know there’s a lot of hesitation,” she said. “But I can imagine if Redwood Meat Co. reopens, it’s not like [Christie] will be on the floor. It will be the same people maintaining humane slaughtering [that did so for the Nylanders]. So I think a lot of people are waiting to see what happens.”

When Redwood Meat closed down two years ago, several industry leaders described it as a loss of critical infrastructure, and they said small, family-owned farms had the most to lose. 

Kenney said she understands why perspectives differ but predicted that if Christie winds up working more behind the scenes and proves that he can maintain humane treatment for the animals, some local ranchers will have a strong financial incentive to choose the Eureka operation.

“I know some people are like, ‘Absolutely no, no way in hell,’ while others are like, ‘Will it make my beef two dollars cheaper?’ We’ll see how it shakes out in six months to a year.”