Under a new permit, the owners of Cavel, the former horse-slaughtering plant on DeKalb’s far south side, plan to rebuild.

Those who drive along Harvestore Drive might notice the remnants of a building and a burned out, melted down trailer.

These are visible reminders of the fire that engulfed the Cavel International Inc. plant in the early hours of Easter 2002.

After days of investigations, the case on the fire was closed because the damage was so extensive, a cause could not be determined. Arson was suspected because the plant was a horse-slaughtering facility, and that may have sparked controversy from animal rights’ groups.

The fire came just months after Cavel International was denied permission to expand and instead was issued a special use permit. Based on the bylaws of the special use permit, all construction must be completed within two years from when the permit was issued.

The owners of Cavel said their plan is to rebuild under the permit, as it has been all along, but had no comment on why construction has not begun and no timeline for construction was given.