WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- The House of Representatives could vote this week on a bill that would ban the butchering of horses for human consumption in the United States.
Horse meat processing is a $40 billion industry in the United States. But the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports it is almost invisible because the meat is shipped overseas and there are only three slaughtering plants in the country, all foreign-owned.
Cavel International Inc. is in DeKalb, Ill., west of Chicago, while the other two are in Texas.
The House is divided on the issue, the Post-Dispatch said. Almost half the representatives have co-sponsored the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. But the Agriculture Committee voted overwhelmingly against it, adding a series of amendments including one that would allow existing plants to remain in business.
Those involved in the business say slaughtering horses is no more inhumane than slaughtering cows and pigs.
"There's a whole psychological thing to people and their horses," said Jim Tucker, general manager of the Cavel plant. "Unfortunately, you need to accept the other side of it, that horses are often livestock."
