Update — A horse meat sandwich could be on the menu for Missourians, thanks to the state House’s passage of a law allowing the slaughter of hoses for human consumption.

The bill, HB1747, passed Thursday with a 91-61 vote, will be sent to the Senate for approval before the bill becomes law.

“The measure is intended to get around a federal ban on meat inspectors working in horse slaughtering plants,” according to the Associated Press. It “would levy fees on slaughterhouses that the state would then transfer to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”

March 11 — Its meat is slightly sweet, tender, low in fat and high in protein. But their companionship is sweet, useful and hard-working, making it taboo in many cultures to eat them. One lawmaker in Missouri, however, wants to revive the delicacy that has been a part of America since the 15th century and make it legal again to eat horse meat in his state.

Horse meat is rarely eaten in the United States because of horses’ common use as pets, working animals and for sport. The number of unwanted horses in the U.S., however, is increasing, said Rep. Jim Viebrock, R-Mo., opening a market for horse-processing facilities.

Viebrock, who introduced the legislation earlier this year, said allowing horse slaughter for human consumption would help revive the nation's horse-slaughter industry, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The state’s agriculture director, Dr. Jon Hagler, supports the legislation.

Currently, older horses that cannot be sold to caring owners at auctions are often bought out by “kill buyers” who take the unwanted horses to Mexico or Canada for slaughter.

"Having just one or two plants; that would bring up the competitive market for horses that have no occupational value," said one Missouri kill buyer, in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "It would at least give us a base price to help."

The Missouri legislation would bypass federal regulations passed in 2005 that banned using federal funds for horse slaughter inspections, subsequently banning interstate shipment of horse meat and preventing any facilities from reopening. The last horse-processor closed in 2007 in Illinois.

Horse welfare is protected by the U.S. with the same federal veterinary infrastructure and protections that ensure humane slaughter of cattle and swine for consumption.

Anti-slaughter advocates and animal rights activists oppose the proposed legislation.

"The pro-slaughter hypothesis is driven largely by the agendas of those who absolutely support slaughter ...," said Alex Brown, a Pennsylvania-based exercise jockey who runs one of the country's biggest anti-slaughter campaigns, in the Post-Dispatch. "They do a very good job of tying the abuse and neglect of horses to the end of domestic slaughter."

Horses are not bred for food, Brown said, and most performance horses are given substances that Canadian and European regulatory agencies have banned, or plan to ban, from their food systems, making them unfit for consumption.

"The reason the cow is alive is because we want to eat it,” he said. “The reason the horse is alive is because we want it to win the Kentucky Derby. That's very different.”

The options, however, for old, ailing horses are few and far between in the U.S., Steve Zorn, a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, points out in a New York Times blog.

“…there’s no simple, easy answer. Those who have the financial means should do more to provide comfortable retirement. And for those who can’t do so, we need solutions that are better than letting a horse starve somewhere in the back paddock, or shipping it off to Mexico for an awful death.”

The top eight countries, with China, Mexico and Kazakhstan at the top of the list, consume about 4.7 million horses a year. Most countries,mainly English-speaking countries, do not consume horse meat because of its taboo, not for safety reasons.

Jurisdictions which allow for the slaughter of horses for food rarely have age restrictions, so many are older, which also adds to the meat’s tenderness. Horse meat is often smoked and salted or used as an ingredient in salami.

Sources:

The Canadian Veterinary Journal. “The United States’ prohibition of horsemeat for human consumption: Is this a good law?,” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2034431/; accessed 11 March 2010.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Slaughter of horses in U.S. could resume, in Missouri,” http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/3335E5FAA88015DC862576E2000F6ECE?OpenDocument; 10 March 2010.

Associate Press. “Mo. House OKs horse slaughterhouse bill,” http://www.koamtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12242617; 1 April 2010.