A change quietly tucked into a state Senate bill approved this week seeks to sidestep a 58-year-old Texas law preventing the slaughter of horses for consumption of their meat.
DALLAS -- Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, inserted an amendment into a bill on the duties and regulations of the Texas Animal Health Commission. It said animals tested by the commission would be exempt from the part of the state agriculture code banning the sale of horse meat for human consumption.
Hegar contends allowing horse meat processing in Texas can keep animals from enduring a harsher fate of being abused, neglected or shipped to Mexico.
“We’re really just kind of turning our back on the problem by saying, ‘Well, if they’re not processed here nothing happens to them anymore,’ and that’s not the case,” he said Friday.
The Senate approved the bill in Austin on Wednesday, and it was sent to the House’s agriculture and livestock committee. House members passed a similar bill in the House, but it does not include provisions on horse slaughter.
“That debate will continue throughout the session. We’ve got several weeks left,” Hegar said. “We’ll be able to have that discussion and probably still have it again probably next session and through the interim. Who knows when we’ll have final conclusion on this issue.”
Efforts to continue horse slaughter the United States suffered recent losses in the federal courts and in Congress.
Earlier this year, a federal appeals court effectively shut down two Texas plants that slaughtered horses and exported the meat overseas—Dallas Crown Inc. in Kaufman and Beltex Corp. in Fort Worth. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned a lower court ruling that said a 1949 Texas law banning horse slaughter for the sale of meat for food was invalid.
A third plant run by Cavel International Inc. in DeKalb, Ill., is not affected by the ruling. The three facilities are foreign-owned.
The Texas Animal Health Commission tests thousands of horses for diseases each year. But most of those tested were not headed to the state’s slaughter houses.
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11News investigates horse slaughter industry
Horses are companion animals not bred for food. These foreign owned slaughter houses made millions and paid little or no taxes. 60,000 horses were stolen last year and over 60% of those were slaughtered illegally before the owners could find them. The politicians still supporting horse slaughter are not listening to the American public. Horses are raised to trust humans,helped found this country and are athletes. They slaughter pregnant mares, foals, blind horses and very young healthy horses. WE DON'T EAT HORSEMEAT and the thousands of rescue organizations are prohibited from law from lobbying. Stop the slaughter.
Barbi is right! We do not eat horsemeat, these foreign companies are making money and not paying any or very little taxes, people steal horses and sell them to slaughter, and horses are suffering! Horses are companions, work partners, they are family. They are one of the most magnificent creations God blessed us with. You can't use the abuse argument with horse slaughter. People can be cruel and will continue to be cruel no matter if there is horse slaughter or not. Most of the people who abuse their animals don't sell them for slaughter, they just abuse them. That's where laws against abuse come in and horses need to be listed as companion animals and not livestock in these laws for their protection. Say NO to horse slaughter!
Allowing the ban on horses being slaughtered sets a precedent for other animals to be slaughtered like in China.
It's not right for the law makers to make such a law with out the people being allowed to vote. I for one would vote against killing horses for food. Next, they'll pass a law saying it'll be okay to kill cats and dogs for food. What is wrong with the law makers? Who do they think we are? How can we stop this from happening?
It seems as though people from foreign countries are having more say so than the Americans that live here. We already have plenty of animals that are used for food without adding pets.
These politicians are the scum of the Earth!!They think they can do whatever they want with no recourse.The best way to get rid of these slimy people is to vote them out of office on the next election.There needs to be a way to sue them for things like this.We don't eat horses here and we need to stop torturing them at the slaughter houses.
How we treat each other tells us a lot about ourselves.
--How we treat each other tells us a lot about ourselves.
--How we treat our animals tells us even more.
--It's time to decide-
ARE WE BARBARIANS OR NOT?
First things first.. I am an animal lover, and I have owned horses in the past, and believe they are to be treasured and taken care of!
Now, here's where a lot of you will hate me. I believe the slaughter plants are a necessary evil. NO, I personally would never eat horse meat! However, what most of you all don't seem to realize is that animals who would otherwise starve to death, or suffer horribly due to a negligent owner who doesn't believe in veterinary care, actually meet a better end. Our rescue organizations would never get enough donations to sustain ALL of the horses who are no longer wanted. The slaughter process needs to be revamped, but the plants do need to stay. The animals who will now have to be shipped to Mexico will suffer far worse than before. Irresponsible breeding and negligent owners are the enemy, NOT the slaughter plants. Yes, it's possible that stolen animals go through before their owners can find them, but this goes along with the slaughter process needing to be re-evaluated.
Senator Glenn Hegar you are a dishonest, disgraceful person who should not be representing Texans. You were put in office to do the majority of the publics will. Texans have overwelmingly spoken up and said that equine slaughter is not ok!!! Believe me your days in politics are now numbered. I would like to call on all of the Katy public to make sure that this scoundrel is ousted in his next election. He obviously has only his own profit in mind. The practice of equine slaughter effects us all. I have a lot of horses. The idea that one of my beloved horse companions could be stolen or sold to an individual who would then sell them to be slaughtered house for consumption in another country sickens me!! One of the workers from one of the Texas Slaughter houses told a story of an 18 wheeler pulling into the doc with a load of horses. One of the horses had fallen in the trailer because of the over crowded conditons and had been unable to get up. One of his rear legs was sticking out of the slats in the trailer. As the trailer backed up to the dock the horses pertruding leg was ripped off by the side wall of the dock. Still alive and struggling this horse was then drug from the trailer and into the slaugher area to be finished off. These people become so harded from seeing the constant murder of these horses that things that would just kill the individual to see mean very little to them. Their goal is to kill the horse, doesn't matter how it is accomplished. The bolt gun that is used many times fails to completely knock the horse out. Sledge hammers are also used because they have a handle and they don't have to be as close to the struggling hooves. A meat hook is then inserted thru the skin between the bones in the hock of the rear leg and the horse is hoisted into the air sometimes still struggling. The final insult is the cutting of the horses throat so that they can bleed out which is what finally finishes them off. They bleed to death! Horses were the one thing that enabled us as a nation to move forward. They are why the west was won! Why we could win wars! Why we could raise large crops! We should show them more respect than they have been recieving from us. The horses are going to starve to death because of the slaughter ban is silly. Horses were being starved while the plants were up and running all those years. So don't blame the starving horses on the lack of slaughter now. Blame the people who have them and are letting them starve. I've seen people who would rather watch their horse starve then let someone have them who will take good care of them.
If you have a horse and you don't want it or can't take care of it PLEASE contact a rescue facility and give it a chance to make someone happy.
I have to agree with TXProud (5/17), yet completely realize how this is such a passionate subject matter that touches many emotions. I'm a huge horse lover. I can't say that horse slaughter is the answer, but I can say that we have an over-population of unwanted horses in America. If you're against horse slaughter, then you have to face the issue of over-population.
Regarding shelters, or adoption facilities, horses are so much more costly to care for -- food, room, board, farrier costs, and needs much more space house, compared to dogs and cats.
What you must remember is this is about politics and lobbyists. This man couldn't care less about the horses or what the constituents think (polls have shown again and again the people overwhelmingly oppose horse slaughter). When FOREIGN lobbyists come knocking on the door with dirty hands full of cash and promises that's all the politicians see.