The Snohomish County Council voted to ban slaughtering horses for human consumption.

A change in federal law last year made it possible for horses to be killed for food.

The Daily Herald reports ( http://bit.ly/T9Xvaw) Wednesday's vote heads off the practice at a packing plant near Stanwood where horses were slaughtered in the 1990s. It no longer slaughters horses but ships them to a Canadian slaughterhouse.

Most of the two-dozen people who spoke before the vote favored the ban. Allen Warren of the Horse Harbor Foundation in Pouslbo says he'll ask lawmakers in Olympia for a statewide ban.

On the other side, Snohomish veterinarian Dr. Richard Guthrie said slaughter would be preferable to having horses neglected or abandoned.

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Information from: The Daily Herald, http://www.heraldnet.com