Should the processing of horse meat be banned in Texas?

Issue #36	Date Added	Status
Should the processing of horse meat be banned in Texas?	Friday 16th February 2007 07:26:08 PM	Open

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FORT WORTH, Texas - Two North Texas slaughterhouses will continue processing horse meat for zoos and other animal pet foods but not for human consumption as they prepare a petition to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

A three-judge panel of the federal appeals court ruled Jan. 19 that a 1949 Texas law banned the sale of horses for human consumption.

David Broiles, a Fort Worth attorney representing slaughterhouse owners Beltex in Fort Worth and Dallas Crown in Kaufman, said he intends to ask the appeals court for a rehearing of the panel's decision by Feb. 2.

During previous arguments before the three-judge panel, Broiles told the court that the state law infringed on federal powers to regulate interstate commerce. Broiles said that once he files the petition for a rehearing, there is no timetable for the appeals court to decide whether to grant it.

In the meantime, he said, both facilities will remain open.

Charles Stenholm, a former U.S. congressman from Abilene who works as a lobbyist at a Washington, D.C., law firm that represents the slaughterhouses, said overseas markets, where horse meat is considered a delicacy, account for about 95 percent of the plants' horse-meat output. The plants also process game such as wild boar, bison, ostrich and emu, he said.

Stenholm could not say how the panel's ruling has affected the jobs of about 90 workers in Fort Worth and 120 workers in Kaufman. But he said "there is a large quantity of horse meat in cold storage" at the plants and "a large number of horses on the premises."

In a related development, Cavel International, the operator of the only other U.S. horse-slaughter facility, in DeKalb, Ill., said it will not expand even if the Texas facilities close. Jim Tucker, Cavel's general manager, told the DeKalb Northern Star that any additional investment would be too risky, given the threat of further legislation against the industry.

The three U.S. slaughterhouses processed about 90,000 horses last year, Stenholm said, and had expected to process 90,000 to 100,000 this year before the court ruling.

The court cases began in 2002 when then-Attorney General John Cornyn ruled that the 1949 statute made the sale of horse meat for human consumption illegal. When district attorneys in Tarrant and Kaufman counties began looking at the two facilities, Beltex and Dallas Crown sought an injunction against further prosecution.

U.S. District Judge Terry Means granted the injunctions in 2003. Two years later, he ruled that federal law trumped the Texas statute, a decision the three-judge appeals panel overturned.

jfreedman