Court of Appeals rules horse slaughter illegal in TX

[altivo]

Goddess forgive me for citing Fox news, but that's the reference ruwhei provided and I don't want to waste time hunting down another just now.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245380,00.html

The Court has upheld a 1949 Texas law that forbids horse slaughter for food, effectively requiring a shutdown of both processing plants in Texas. Whether this will be appealed to the Supreme Court depends on who is willing to spend the huge sums of money required. I'm not sure the slaughterhouse owners have that sort of backing. I suppose the Texas legislature may rush to repeal the 1949 law, or the slaughterers may move their operations somewhere else, say, Oklahoma or Alabama. The judge wryly noted that the cowboy, an American icon, is never depicted as being willing to eat his horse.

This ruling has no direct effect on the Cavel International operation in DeKalb, Illinois, just 35 miles from my home, alas. It's interesting to note that all three horse slaughter operations in the US are owned and operated by foreign interests and employ only a handful of people. This is not a business interest with major economic impact.

Comments

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

You know, I find that really strange. Why would Bush, being the cowboy that he is, try to undermine any efforts to stop horse slaughter? I would figure that if he does appreciate any form of animal life, it would be a horse. But maybe not. Conservatives aren't supposed to love anything about the earth except for how it can be used to suit their own needs.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Bush is not a real cowboy. He's just a spoiled rich kid. Everything in the world exists just to be used for his own pleasure and purpose.

The horse slaughter battle, which has many facets as you no doubt know, is viewed by this administration as an attempt to restrict the prerogatives of business, and of course they always oppose that. Last year Congress cut off the funding for inspectors in those plants, but the administration worked out a dubious plan that let the slaughterhouse owners pay the cost of the inspectors, reimbursing the FDA (in theory) so that federal inspection could continue. Otherwise, the output of those disgusting places could only be sold for animal feed.

Here in the US, the market for horsemeat even as dogfood has dwindled to almost nothing, though some is used by zoos to feed large carnivores.