Oklahoma Lifts Ban On Horse Slaughtering

The issue of horsemeat has been in the news a lot lately, mostly on foreign shores. The equine meat found its way into burgers in England and lasagna and meatballs in Sweden, and folks are even going so far as to learn ways to avoid accidentally ordering the meat while traveling abroad.

But what about right here in the United States? If you live in Oklahoma, you might be one step closer to being able to order a horse burger.

A new law was just passed that allows for the slaughtering of horses in the state, overturning a law that's 50 years old. And while selling the meat for human consumption is still strictly forbidden, it can be processed in the state and shipped abroad for foreign use.

This measure wasn't passed just because legislators thought that more horses should be slaughtered in the state; apparently, there's a major problem with horse abandonment in the state, as hundreds of thousands of horses are left to die each year, or else illegally shipped down to Mexico for slaughter.

The law will go into effect Nov. 1.