Horse Meat On US Menus? USDA Set To Approve Slaughter House

While Europe struggles with a scandal over horse meat being surreptitiously added to food there, the United States might be getting back in the business of producing horse meat for human consumption — provided the Department of Agriculture approves inspectors for a New Mexico horse slaughtering plant.

The Valley Meat Company, which owns the Roswell, N.M.-based horse slaughtering facility, sued the USDA and its Food Safety and Inspection Service last fall, alleging there was a lack of inspection services for horses sent to the slaughter in the US, forcing the horses to be slaughtered in Mexico and Canada, where standards are inhuman.