Horse-slaughter plans on track, Montana rep. says

State Rep. Ed Butcher is confident that investors he’s working with will be able to open several horse-slaughtering plants in the United States, possibly including one in Montana, despite the loss of Hardin as a prospective location for a plant. Butcher, R-Winifred, said the abandoned sugar plant in Hardin that his investors were looking at proved to be an undesirable location anyway, so a local ordinance banning large slaughtering plants won’t affect them. Butcher and a group with ties to China toured the old sugar beet plant in January, and in March the Hardin City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting facilities that would slaughter more than 25 animals within any seven-day period from opening in Hardin. Meanwhile, he said, the original group of investors, plus a couple of other interested parties, are pushing ahead with their plans. He said they have been looking at several locations in the United States, including some promising sites in Montana, which he declined to identify. “We’d get all the nutcases out there harassing the community,” he said. He said the investors are also busy lining up markets for horse meat and other products, and he is confident that several horse-slaughter plants will be built in the near future...more