Shipping horse flesh through Texas is Illegal

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http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA050908.AGHorsemeat.EN.36d1b46.html AG says shipping horsemeat through Texas is illegal Web Posted: 05/08/2008 10:59 PM CDT By Lisa Sandberglsandberg AUSTIN — Selling or possessing horsemeat for human consumption is illegal in Texas; now, apparently, so is the shipment of horsemeat through Texas to markets overseas. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott this week issued an

opinion saying the state's prohibition on horsemeat for human food would almost certainly apply to the transport of horsemeat, too. The opinion was hailed by anti-slaughter activists and decried by attorneys for foreign-based slaughterhouses in Mexico, who until last year used Texas ports and airports to ship their product to Europe, where horsemeat is a delicacy in some countries. Horsemeat is not eaten in the United States and the sacrifice of American horses to satisfy foreign palates faces stiff opposition in some quarters. Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, who supports horse slaughter, said he requested the Attorney General's opinion after being approached last year by an attorney for a slaughterhouse in Mexico. Chisum expressed disappointment with the ruling. “Mexico kills horses, whether we like it or not, and people in France eat them. And sometimes the slaughterhouses like to ship the meat out of Corpus or Houston,” Chisum said. The ruling did not address the more contentious issue of American horses sent to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada. Court rulings last year closed the last remaining horse slaughter plants in the United States, but, to the chagrin of slaughter opponents, did not close the borders. While fewer American horses have been slaughtered since U.S. operations closed, the number sent across the borders has soared. In the first 3½ months of this year, 14,000 American horses were sent into Mexico and slaughtered, the vast majority from Texas, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics. And 12,000 American horses were sent to Canadian slaughter plants in the first two months of this year. That's down from the overall number of horses killed domestically and abroad in 2006, but the export figures are increasing, said John Holland, an anti-slaughter activist. He said new plants pop up all the

time in Canada. Horse slaughter opponents celebrated Abbott's opinion as yet another obstacle for those who trade in what they consider companion animals. “They thought this would be one more chance to thumb their noses at us, to say, ‘We're still going to bring our horsemeat back into Texas,'” said Chris Heyde, deputy director of the Animal Welfare Institute, a protection group in Virginia. Ann Diamond, an assistant district attorney with the Tarrant County District Attorney's office, said horsemeat from Mexico was shipped out of the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport until last year. Her office attempted to crack down and was unsuccessfully sued by two Belgium-owned horse slaughter plants. American Airlines has stopped shipping horsemeat from Texas, an airline spokesman said Thursday. “We can only ship legal commodities,” spokesman Tim Wagner said. Those who lobbied unsuccessfully to keep U.S.

horse slaughter plants open say they warned their opponents that horses would suffer far more if the plants were closed. While acknowledging that suffering has increased for horses sent across the borders, horse slaughter opponents contend that the solution isn't to resume horse-killing operations here but to ban the export of American horses to Mexico and Canada for slaughter. Legislation that would close the borders to slaughter-bound horses is pending in Congress. U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., author of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, said “quiet negotiations” have been taking place in the House to get a vote on the bill this year. A companion bill is pending in the Senate.

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