2 firms get approval to keep butchering horses for export
04/24/2003
AUSTIN – A bill that would allow two North Texas companies to continue
butchering horses for human consumption overseas was tentatively approved
Wednesday by the House amid some bad puns.
"Shouldn't this bill be titled 'from stable to table?' " asked Rep.
Fred Brown, R-College Station. But it was no joking matter to the companies in Tarrant and Kaufman counties
that have been killing horses and shipping the meat to markets in France and
other countries since the late 1940s. The companies – Dallas Crown in Kaufman County and Fort Worth competitor
Beltex Corp. – are thought to be the only ones in the United States that
slaughter horses. The companies estimate 800 to 900 horses a week are
slaughtered for the palates of Europe and Asia and the zoos of America. The bill by Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell, would put the issue to rest by
legalizing the sale of horse meat for table use in other countries. As a concession to horse lovers, she included a provision requiring livestock
sales companies to post a notice in a prominent location saying that horses
being sold could end up on some foreigner's dinner table. Rep. Toby Goodman, R-Arlington, tried to scuttle the measure by tacking on an
amendment allowing only those horses too old or sick for riding, working or
breeding to go to slaughter. "We don't raise horses to be consumed any more than we raise dogs to be
consumed," he said. Mr. Goodman's amendment was quickly scuttled after the bill's supporters
noted that the only horses it would have allowed to be slaughtered were unfit
for human consumption. E-mail gkuempel@dallasnews.com