Posted 6/19/2005 05:34:00 PM by Douglas

Prison horse: It's what's for dinner.

Horse advocates are upset that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has sold some of its horses to a plant that processes horse meat for sale.

Dallas Crown, the Kaufman processing plant, purchased 53 horses from the department between February 2003 and November 2004, according to Kaufman County records. The plant sells the meat in Europe and Japan.

The state's retired work horses should be euthanized instead of sold to such plants, said Julie Caramante of Pearland, a volunteer with Habitat for Horses, an equine rescue organization.

Should we kill these nags and throw them in a hole, or should we knock 'em on the head and sell them for steaks?

"Is it in the best interest of my state to (pay to) euthanize the horse, and then go out and bury the horse?" Tom Fordyce, a former director of agribusiness for the Department of Criminal Justice, asked in The Dallas Morning News. "Or could I try to salvage some money out of this horse to lower the cost of operating the agriculture program?"

Yeah, what he said. Horse, cow. . .what's the difference?