HOUSTON – More than one million pounds of fresh and frozen horse meat has moved through the Port of Houston since August 2012, according to records obtained by Local 2 Investigates.
Those shipping documents also show those horse parts were sold primarily to a Dutch company that touts horse meat as "one of the healthiest kinds of meat for human consumption" on their website.
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It is illegal in the state of Texas to ship, transfer or sell horse meat for human consumption, although the 1949 law is broadly written and infrequently tested.
The "bill of lading" documents obtained by Local 2 list "International Unicorn Group" as the shipper of most of the horse meat. International Unicorn is based in Kaufman, Texas. Kaufman was the site of a Horse Slaughter plant until it shutdown in 2007.
The president of International Unicorn Group, Inc., is listed as Jan P. Visser with the Texas Secretary of State's Office. Visser is also noted as the founder of the Dutch company receiving most of the horse meat.
According to the documents, the horse meat appears to originate in Mexico, stopover at the Port of Houston and then make its way to Europe and sometimes Russia.
