A mile from one of only three horse slaughter plants in the United States, the stale smell of offal and blood wafts under Mayor Paula Bacon’s nose.
“It’s a kill day, isn’t it?” she says, referring to the plant’s twice a week slaughter schedule. “It rained today, but it gets worse than this.”

That happens, says Bacon and others, on hot afternoons when a southerly wind carries the smell far beyond the Dallas Crown slaughter mill and the nearby Boggy Bottoms neighborhood. Families say the odor keeps them indoors and Bacon says the plant’s “stigma” stifles development and job growth in this rural exurb of 7,000 about 30 miles southeast of Dallas.

Dallas Crown and its Belgium owners have survived a number of attempts in recent years to close the plant–Kaufman’s most visible landmark to passing motorists.

“It’s as focused right now as it’s gotten,” Dallas Crown attorney Mark Calabria, who also lives in Kaufman, said of the horse slaughter debate