Even worse, however, is a current bill that would decriminalize horse slaughter for human consumption.

It has passed the Texas House and awaits a hearing in the Senate's agriculture committee.

This wretched bill, not Texas horses, should be put to slaughter.

Both of the horse slaughter plants are located in Kaufman County, near Dallas, and both are owned by Belgium companies.

Fewer than 200 minimum-wage workers are employed to slaughter horses, process their meat and ship it to France, Belgium, Germany and Japan for human consumption. The economic impact if both of these plants were closed tomorrow — as they should be — is minimal.

This newspaper urges the Legislature to join the rest of the states in protecting horses from slaughter for human consumption.

Such killing is not only inhumane for the animals, but it cruelly renders a primary feature of the Texas myth — the horse — to the slaughterhouse.