Horse-Slaughter Jobs Embraced in State Where Cowboys Roam

[teaser]Excerpted from an article by Alan Bjerga and Amanda J. Crawford on Business Week.[/teaser]

Tim Sappington is ready to buy horses for Valley Meat Co., which is seeking to open the first U.S. horse slaughterhouse since 2007. Right now he’s the only paid employee, and he puts his money where his mouth is.

He eats horse meat. And he likes it.

“I’ve eaten it for years,” said Sappington, who slaughters the animals himself and keeps a meat locker stocked at his home near Roswell, New Mexico.

Sappington and others see the plan to reopen the shuttered cattle facility about 8 miles outside Roswell, near a ranch that is home to a Kentucky Derby winner, as a chance to reclaim jobs now going to Mexico.

The idea of killing horses for food has generated heated opposition from animal-welfare advocates who say it is cruel and could introduce unhealthy meat into the food supply, and it has spurred legislation in Congress to keep it from happening.