Here is the current situation (from the Habitat for Horses website):
"The Federal Court Battle. As most of you know, shortly after the Texas Attorney General ruled that the two Texas horse slaughter plants were in violation of Chapter 149 of the Texas Agriculture Code, which makes it a criminal offense to sell horsemeat for human consumption, the plants filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court in Ft. Worth, Texas to stop the Tarrant and Kaufman County District Attorneys from prosecuting them. The basis for their suit was that the Federal law, which protects interstate commerce, overrides the Texas law outlawing the sale of horsemeat for human consumption. That lawsuit is still pending in the Federal court and there is little or nothing we, as members of the general public, can do but await the Federal judge's decision. According to the Tarrant County District Attorney's office that decision should come sometime toward the end of the year. Until then the Tarrant and Kaufman County District Attorneys have been ordered by the Federal court to not prosecute the horse slaughter plants. Thus, we are simply in a waiting game. We have every reason to believe that we will be successful in the court battle but only time will tell."
The issue is dead at the state level in Texas and it remains illegal. However, the injunction remains in place until the Fed court rules on whether federal law supercedes state law in this instance. The lawsuit was brought by the foreign-owned slaughterhouses, Dallas Crown and Beltex.
HR 857 would make the live slaughter of horses intended for human consumption illegal at the federal level. It is currently in committee. If you want to know the sponsors or read about that bill, go to
http://thomas.loc.gov/ and look up the bill.
Thanks..... I wasn't interested in the Fed bill but must have been incorrect on the Texas legislation that I thought had passed. I may do some digging later. What I remember as having passed was a definition change in the AG Code in some piece of legislation which made it legal to slaughter horses for human consumption outside the US. I must have that wrong...