Horse Slaughterhouses May Face Charges Unless They Close

Two Texas slaughterhouses responsible for half the 100,000 horses killed in America annually for overseas consumption may face criminal charges if they don't shut down, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided.

"The lone cowboy riding his horse on a Texas trail is a cinematic icon," the three-judge appellate decision said in a unanimous decision yesterday. "Not once in memory did the cowboy eat his horse, but film is an imperfect mirror."

Beltex Corp., of Fort Worth, and Dallas Crown Inc., of Kaufman, Texas, challenged a 1949 state law prohibiting the export of horse meat for human consumption, saying it interfered with federal regulations.

A Mexican slaughterhouse, Empacadora de Carnes de Fresnillo, which sells horse meat to Beltex, joined the suit as it planned to move into Texas to handle its own export operations.

"We will take this to the Supreme Court," a Fort Worth constitutional litigation attorney who represents the slaughterhouses, David Broiles, said.

Mr. Broiles said he would meet with his clients to decide whether to seek a hearing before the entire Fifth Circuit first or petition directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"I was very surprised by the opinion, and so were they," he said. "My clients are law-abiding citizens. They're not going to intentionally violate the law."

The unanimous decision makes it unlikely the Supreme Court would agree to review the case, said Jonathan Lovvorn, vice president of litigation for the Humane Society of the United States, which filed a brief in support of banning the slaughterhouses.

Legislation was introduced January 17 in the Senate and House of Representatives to ban slaughter of American horses nationwide. If the Texas facilities are closed, one slaughterhouse will remain operational, the Belgian-owned Cavel International of DeKalb, Ill.

"We've long felt that Texas law prohibited the practice of slaughtering horses for human consumption overseas and banned this barbaric and foreign-driven industry," executive vice president of the Humane Society, Michael Markarian, said.