Sale and consumption of horse meat is illegal in California and Illinois.[11] Horse meat supplied by three abattoirs in the U.S. was sold to zoos to feed their carnivores, and was exported to Europe and Japan for human consumption. In 2007 two horse meat abattoirs in Texas were ordered closed. Later that year, an abattoir in Illinois, reported to be the last horse meat abattoir in the U.S., was closed.[11]

There is an effort in the United States to create a law, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, designed to stop the slaughter of horses for human consumption.[12] On September 8, 2006, the House of Representatives passed a bill which, had it also passed the Senate and been signed by the President, would have made killing horses for human consumption an illegal practice in the United States.[13]

Most people in the US are not aware that horses are slaughtered there for human consumption in other countries. According to some of these polls, in New York, 64% of people polled believed that slaughtering horses for meat was illegal, while in Indiana, 91% believe that horse slaughter should be banned.[14] In Texas 89% of voters are unaware that horse slaughter was then going on in their own state.[15]

Prior to 2007, three major equine slaughterhouses operated in the United States: Dallas Crown, Inc. in Kaufman, Texas; Beltex Corporation in Fort Worth, Texas; and Cavel International, Inc. in DeKalb, Illinois. All with Belgian ownership [LOL], although Multimeat NW has also been listed as French and Dutch owned. Velda NV owns Cavel, Multimeat NV owns Beltex and Chevideco owns Dallas Crown.

The slaughterhouses exported approximately 42 million dollars worth of horse meat per year. Since the human consumption of horse meat is generally considered unacceptable by the majority of the United States populace[citation needed] (see Taboo food and drink) and is illegal in several states, most of the horses slaughtered for this purpose in the United States were exported to other countries, such as France, Belgium and Japan, where the meat is considered a delicacy.[16] As prominently stated on their website, Dallas Crown “provides Carnivore Diet for zoos and wildlife centers across the United States”.[17]