Horse Slaughter Draws Ire

Some 40 members of Congress responded by writing to USDA Secretary Mike Johanns last month warning that the department should not engage in a "complex regulatory maneuver" in which it interpreted the law to say that it stopped inspections but not slaughter.

As for the fee-for-service arrangement, the USDA is authorized to accept private payment for bison, reindeer, ostrich and other exotic animals, said Steven Cohen , Food Safety and Inspection Service spokesman. Horses would be brought under this program with the new rule.

Leading the lobbying charge for the companies is former representative Charles W. Stenholm , a Democrat who retired last year after 26 years as a member of the Texas delegation and the House Agriculture Committee .

Stenholm, who is now senior policy adviser for Olsson Frank and Weeda PC , a Washington law firm, said the slaughtering process is humane and well-regulated. He stressed that horse owners have the right to decide how to put a horse out to pasture. They can pay for euthanasia administered by a veterinarian or go the slaughtering route, where the owner can pocket about $400.

"I have never eaten them or visited a plant," said Stenholm. "But it's a delicacy" to some in such countries as France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland and Japan, he added. He said the export market totaled $28 million in 2003.

A public relations firm working for the plants produced 45 pages worth of letters from some 60 organizations, such as the American Quarter Horse Association and the American Farm Bureau , opposing the idea of ending horse slaughter.

The Quarter Horse Association said there are not enough rescue and adoption facilities to take care of unwanted horses. "All legal and humane options for terminating ownership of his/her horse should be available to the horse owner when such a difficult decision is made," it said in a statement.

Beltex's Garcia said the campaign against the slaughterhouses is misdirected because giving the animals a lethal injection does not mean an immediate death. "They don't close their eyes and die peacefully. Nobody films that," he said, referring to a proliferation of graphic videos on the Internet of the slaughtering process.

Animal-protection groups are fighting back. Besides last week's lawsuit, they are campaigning for passage of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, which would outlaw horse slaughter altogether.

The groups said the horses are subject to inhumane treatment in their transport to the slaughterhouse and when they are killed with a shot from a captive bolt gun. They say "killer buyers" run a thriving business of buying horses from unsuspecting owners and then selling them for meat.

"It is an ugly, dirty industry," said Wayne Pacelle , president of the Humane Society. "Horses have had a bigger role in the history of this country than any other animal, and we are serving them abroad for a relative few pennies."