030163 Texas Groups Want Horse Meat Off Dinner Tables

In 1949 the war was over, food was scarce and unscrupulous butchers were selling unsuspecting customers horse meat instead of beef. So the Texas Legislature made it illegal to slaughter, possess, sell and transport horse meat for human consumption.

The last prosecution for passing horse off as beef was in the 1950s, but the law stayed on the books.

Last year, when Texas animal rights groups realized the nation's last two plants that slaughter horses for human consumption were in their own state, they launched a campaign to get the law enforced. The case pits horse lovers against a $39-million-a-year industry

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has called for national legislation against the sale of horse meat for human consumption. A political action committee called HOOFPAC has been formed with the motto “Keep America's horses in the stable and off the table.”

Selling horse meat for people to eat goes against the historic relationship between Texans and horses, says Donald Feare, an animal welfare attorney in Arlington, Texas. “They're our friends. You don't eat them; you treat them with respect. It's just contrary to our culture to throw a slab of horse on the barbecue.”

The Beltex plant in Fort Worth slaughters an estimated 500 horses a week, and the Dallas Crown plant in Kaufman kills 350. That's about 45,000 horses slaughtered each year out of about 7 million horses in the USA.

The meat isn't sold for human consumption here. Beltex and Dallas Crown are owned by Belgian companies, and the meat is shipped to Belgium for sale in Europe, where horse meat is something of a delicacy. The plants also sell meat to U.S. zoos.

John Linebarger, the lawyer for the slaughterhouses, says a state can't pass a law regulating interstate and foreign commerce.

But Mike Ramsey, a professor of constitutional law at the University of San Diego, says states are perfectly within their rights to ban certain products. He cites “dry” states that at times have banned alcohol.

Linebarger notes that although the industry may have been illegal for the past 53 years, Texas has been making money off it just the same. “Over the years they've been taxing the business at $5 a head, $3 of which goes to USDA for inspecting the horse meat,” he says.

Ann Diamond, assistant district attorney for Tarrant County, where Beltex is located, indicates that as far as the state is concerned, the meat is for non-human consumption.

The case is before Judge Terry Means in the U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, who must decide whether the case belongs in federal or state court.

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