The Dallas Morning News reports that of the 6.9-million horses in America in 2001, 57,000 were slaughtered, mostly for human consumption.

Two U.S. companies, both in Texas, have cornered a large part of the world's equine flesh market. An Illinois company that sold horse meat burned down last year and has not rebuilt. With 150 workers, two Dallas companies kill nearly 1,000 horses a week.

Well, it appears that the foot and mouth and mad cow diseases in Europe have led not to increased vegetarianism but to a rise in what the meat industry calls "alternative meat" consumption.

Jonathan Eig reported in the Wall Street Journal that, after a decade of sluggish sales, the horse-meat business in Europe is booming. The meat is not some luxury item prepared in expensive restaurants: in France, Spain, Belgium and Italy it is widely and cheaply available in supermarkets.

Much of the horse-meat comes from the U.S. and Canada. Only three U.S. companies produce horse meat for human consumption, down from more than a dozen twenty years ago. The U.S. exported less than 10,000 tons of horse meant to Europe last year, down from 17,000 in 1996. But this January exports rose, and meat companies say slaughter rates are climbing.