Warning: Video contains graphic images

It has long been regarded as America’s dirty little secret: More than 100,000 horses a year are slaughtered in the U.S. for consumption at European dinner tables. 

Two of the nation’s horse slaughtering facilities, all of which are foreign-owned, are located in Texas – one in Kaufman and another in Fort Worth.

Last August, KHOU investigated Belgian-owned Dallas Crown in Kaufman, where horses are killed by steel bolts driven into their brains.

“Why can’t people just see horse slaughter for what it is.  It’s a dirty little secret that doesn’t benefit the city of Kaufman, the state of Texas or the United States,” Mayor Paula Bacon said.

But perhaps the biggest secret of all is the practice has been banned in Texas for over 50 years, so when a federal appeals court ruled that horse slaughter was illegal in the state, they were just re-enforcing a statue that was already on the books, albeit ignored.

“We’ve had these people sitting at our front door, ignoring the law, creating a nuisance and an embarrassment to my community.  It will be a great day to see this resolved so they can just go away,” Bacon said.

Although the Texas plants have ten days to seek another hearing on the matter, the appeals court ruling could effectively eliminate two-thirds of all horse slaughter in the U.S.

“It is an important day for horse welfare in this country, and we hope the horse slaughter houses see the handwriting on the wall and cease their operations voluntarily before the courts and law enforcement officers do that,” Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society of the United States said.

If the court’s ruling stands, Illinois will have the only remaining horse processing plant.

But legislation introduced this week in both the House and the Senate could ban slaughter nation-wide … perhaps making that handwriting on the wall even easier to read.