By Chris Erlon, Red Rock, TX

The bill was indeed pulled from committee Saturday night. Legislation deadline for this session was last night at midnight, and, as far as I know, there was no resurgence of horse slaughter legislation.

They could, and probably will, go into a special session. But the governor sets the agenda for that, and, believe me, they have much bigger fish to fry than this slaughterhouse issue; I doubt it will even come up in special session. I did hear, however, that the Belgian owners of one of the slaughterhouses has already started a lawsuit against the State of Texas, so I'm afraid this is not totally over yet. But for now, at least we're not facing new legislation legalizing horse slaughter for human consumption.

The following post is copied from the Animals-2-Chat list.

This came from another group (HRB1) To clarify -

The bill was defeated (killed actually) that would legalize horse slaughter for human consumption in Texas. Last year, the attorney general ruled that the slaughter houses were operating illegally according to a 1949 law which made it illegal to sell meat for human consumption (Texas law). This bill was proposed (HB1324) to negate the 1949 law and make it legal. This bill was killed, and then ammendments were proposed to other bills that would have the same effect. As I understand it, all ammendments have been killed - slaughter for human consumption WILL NOT be legalized in Texas.

Now - the slaughter houses aren't going to close down today, tomorrow, or even this month. They've been operating illegally for years, and it is now up to the DAs in each county (Kaufman and Tarrant) to prosecute the slaughter houses for operating illegally. The DA in Tarrant Co. has prepared a case, but the slaughter house in Tarrant Co. filed an injunction against her saying that federal law supercedes state law. This injunction hearing is now in federal court. It was put 'on hold' while the fate of HB1324 was decided. It should now go forward. The DA in Kaufman Co. is not interested in shutting down the slaughter house in his county, so this is going to be a problem.

More information can be found at

http://www.hoofpac.com/legislation/hr1324/hr1324_alert.html.

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