Last year, Congress pulled funding for inspections of horse slaughterhouses, effectively shutting them down. It worked on two of the three such facilities left in the country (both of which were in Texas).
But the last holdout, in Dekalb, IL, found a solution. The slaughterhouse there decided to pay the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture directly for the inspection expenses. In March of this year, though, a federal court said that arrangement represented a conflict of interest, a decision that shut the place down.
This week, however, an appeals court ruled the slaughterhouse can stay open -- slaughtering about 1,000 horses a week, sending the meat abroad -- while it pursues the appeals process.
My opinions on horse meat are well documented. I may not be clamoring for a Barbaro Brisket, but who am I to say someone can't have a Secretariat Stew or a Hi-Ho-Silver Sandwich?
Seriously, can anyone tell me how -- legally speaking -- it's okay to have slaughterhouses for cows, pigs and deer, but not horses?
