2007_02_01_archive

Texas Appellate Court Rules Against Slaughterhouses

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently relied on a 1949 Texas law

in holding that the two horse slaughterhouses located in Texas may not

continue slaughtering horses for human consumption. The law makes it

an offense to "sell, offer for sale, or exhibit for sale horsemeat as

food for human consumption." The law also prohibits transferring the

meat to a person one knows or should know intends to use the meat for

one of the prohibited activities. Since the ruling, numerous airliners

including American Airlines and Delta Airlines have refused to

continue shipping horsemeat from the Texas slaughterhouses to Europe

or Japan where the meat is sold. This places a burden on

slaughterhouse owners Beltex Corporation and Dallas Crown, Inc., who

plan to continue slaughtering horses until their rehearing before the

Fifth Circuit is resolved. Meanwhile, the only other slaughterhouse in

the nation, located in DeKalb, Illinois, is also coming under

pressure. Owned by Cavel International, the slaughterhouse burned down

in 2002 and was reopened in 2004. Since then, it has failed to meet

DeKalb District sanitary standards and has been fined at least

$25,000. Currently, the District has put the fines into escrow pending

Cavel's development of a new refining system, but many hope to see the