Horse slaughter is illegal, court rules

A federal appeals court says slaughtering horses for meat is illegal in Texas, where the animals symbolize the Old West and where two of the nation’s three processing plants are located.

The decision, issued Friday by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, overturns a lower court’s ruling last year on a 1949 Texas law that banned horse slaughter for the purpose of selling the meat for food. The lower court said the Texas law had been repealed by another statute and was preempted by federal law.

However, a panel of the 5th Circuit disagreed. “The lone cowboy riding his horse on a Texas trail is a cinematic icon. Not once in memory did the cowboy eat his horse,” wrote Judge Fortunato Benavides.