AUSTIN – Attorney General Greg Abbott said Wednesday that it's illegal to ship horse meat across Texas.

His opinion affects two Texas horse-rendering plants that have fought to continue operating while waging battles in the Legislature, Congress and the courts.

The Beltex plant in Fort Worth and the Dallas Crown plant in Kaufman had been two of three places in the nation where horses could be slaughtered and the meat shipped overseas for consumption. In Texas, it is illegal to possess horse meat for human consumption, and that law was ultimately upheld by a decision of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in January 2007.

The plants have effectively shuttered most operations.

Last September, Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, asked the attorney general, in light of federal laws protecting free commerce, whether it was OK to temporarily store horse meat that is intended for human consumption in Texas if foreign corporations own it. His question suggested that horse meat owned by Mexican companies might be shipped across Texas on its way to other countries.

The attorney general found that federal law did not provide any protection for shipping a product deemed illegal in Texas.

Christy Hoppe