Dormant Horse Slaughter Plant Demolished

A powerful symbol of the horse slaughter industry—and of the hopes some have of resurrecting it—crumbled in April with the demolition of the former Dallas Crown plant in Kaufman, Texas. The plant converted in the 1970s from slaughtering cattle to horses when it came under foreign ownership and quickly became an example of everything that was objectionable about horse slaughter. Long a source of animal suffering, overpowering odors, environmental problems, community opposition, and tax evasion, the plant finally closed in 2007 after a legal challenge by AWI based on a Texas ban on the slaughter of horses for human consumption.