HOUSTON -- A federal appeals court has ruled that horse slaughter is illegal in Texas, home to two of the nation’s three processing plants.

The decision, issued late Friday by the 5^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, overturns a lower federal district court’s ruling last year on a 1949 Texas law that banned horse slaughter for the purpose of selling the meat for food.

The lower court had said the Texas law was invalid because it had already been repealed by another statute and pre-empted by federal law.

But a panel of three judges on the 5^th Circuit disagreed and said the law stood on its own merits and was still enforceable.

“The lone cowboy riding his horse on a Texas trail is a cinematic icon,” Judge Fortunato Benavides wrote in Friday’s ruling. “Not once in memory did the cowboy eat his horse.”

The ruling involves two of the nation’s three horse slaughtering plants—the Dallas Crown Inc. slaughter mill in Kaufman, Texas, and Beltex Corp. in nearby Forth Worth. A third plant run by Cavel International Inc. in DeKalb, Ill. is not affected by the ruling.  All three facilities are foreign-owned.

Mark Calabria, a lawyer for Dallas Crown, could not be reached for comment Saturday. Telephone messages left at the offices of Dallas Crown and Beltex were not immediately returned.

About 88,000 horses, mules and other equines were slaughtered in 2005, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department.

Horse meat is not marketed as table fare in the United States, but the slaughter plants process hundreds of horses each week and ship the meat overseas, where horse flesh is considered a delicacy in Europe, Japan and other places.

While proponents such as the American Veterinary Medical Association say slaughter is a kind way to deal with old horses and a better alternative to abandonment, opponents including Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens and country music star Willie Nelson have argued that the killing of equines is un-American—and many young horses are killed as well.

A bill pending before Congress would shutter all three operations.

The Humane Society of the United States, which filed an amicus brief in the case, lauded the fact that those involved in the horse slaughter business in Texas can now face criminal prosecution.