I want to thank you for such an informative, well writen, and acurate artical. There is much blame to be placed on this issue. Whenever there is money to be made in an industry - abuses abound. If we as American horse owners / breeders / trainers would have kept our industry cleaner, this would have never happened to our horses. Our registered breed organizations made it very attractive to raise and show disposable animals with disregard to their welfare. Our veterinarians made sure that affordable animal care is very hard to find. I suppose the argument is "if you can't pay for expensive vet services you can't pay for the upkeep of a horse ". Maybe - however now is the time for breed organizations, veterinarians, feed manufacturers to lend a helping hand to the resposable owners in America. My moto : " I brought you into this world and I am resonsible for you. Even if it means taking you out of this world - by a humane and ethical methods. We needed a wake - up call. This is it !!!

What did not make the editors revision was my stance on responsible ownership. Many people are well intentioned but uneducated in the actual issue of horse slaughter. I believe decisions made should be science based rather than emotional pleas and misrepresentations. I monitor the condition of the horses that pass through the facility heading south for slaughter. The horses did not arrive at this poor condition on their own or overnight. The lack of responsible ownership is the issue at hand. I cannot stress this point enough. It is much simpler to blame/target the collection points or transporters of these horses. Please do not harass the collection points or the personnel transporting these horses. Rather, educate the owners that allowed the horses to degenerate to this deplorable state. Yes, educate the owners in the United States of the actual costs and care required associated with responsible horse ownership. What a concept! I believe this would greatly assist in stopping the ever increasing unwanted horse problem in the United States.

As the former director of the New Mexico Livestock Board, I succeeded in having legislation passed to allow the licensing of horse rescues in New Mexico under the guidance of the American Association of Equine Practitioners. At the time, only 6 horse rescues in the state met the requirements. There were and are many so called horse/animal rescues that solicit donations, funding etc. that do not do a credible job for the animals under their care. The annual costs associated in maintaining a horse run between $2,500 - $3,500 to ensure proper nutrition, veterinarian and farrier care. Again I stress responsible ownership. I believe it is far more humane to put down an animal than allow it to continue to live under less than humane care.

One would think that on a progressive site, the letters and feeling behind this issue would be more sensitive. Alas, it is not.

It doesn't really matter if horses are "livestock" or not. That is beside the point. Whether you call them livestock or pets animals have feelings. They fear death, pain and suffering and do not want to be killed (which almost all farm animals do at death is fight to the very end).

When we will understand that animals are sentient beings? They are not our dinner or plaything or tools....they are living, feeling beings.

Until we understand that, we will not be fully developed human beings. We are capable of understanding this but so many choose not to putting their sense pleasures above thoughtfulness.

As for the article, it's a quandary...one wonders why those who had enough money to buy horses aren't kind enough to end their lives properly. One also wonders why we keep breeding them if they are being put to a gruesome death.

My vote is always for more compassion and less killing...for ALL animals, not just horses.

All the people who want to ban horse slaughter are these rich folks who spend 10 of thousands a year grooming their 'Misty' or 'Jet'. These people have a distrted view of horses. They want to impose their cultural puritanicalism on the rest of us.

I say- slaughter these horses. They are no different than cattle. Certainly you can't convince me that horses are more intelligent than pigs. Another is that americans should learn to eat both horses and dogs. Stop letting all this good meat go to waste. Get over the cultural hang-ups.

For all the practical souls who say it's a shame to waste good meat, might I just mention that the biggest waste of all is what we do with our human dead? Filling up good land with chemical-laden corpses and overpriced coffins--or just reducing the meat and bone to ash that isn't even used as fertilizer most of the time. Spending eternity in an urn on the mantelpiece. Foolish sentimentality.

Now I'm not suggesting we actually raise people as meat, though you may recall a certain Irishman did modestly propose that, several centuries back. But Soylent Green shows us the way--simply process our dead into nutritious food supplements, no more recognizible as human than Spam is recognizible as porcine.

Even if squeamish emotion-driven people won't eat it, our pets and livestock certainly will. That completes the circle of life rather nicely, don't you think?

If you're going to go around slaughtering other people's sacred cows, don't get so offended when yours end up on the killing floor. If horses are nothing more than meat on the hoof, then what do you think you are? I think that's the moral I was going for.

yeah. right.

@Militant Agostic

http://video.hsus.org/?fr_story=06f9474eb9eda0b4c3755080cbe889257722da4b&rf=sitemap

choke on that.

I heard a long interview with Mr. and Mrs. T.Boone Pickens regarding wild horse sanctuaries. It sounded great at first, kind of like all those windmills of T.Boone's sounded great at first. But when you read the fine print, the Pickens are asking for many millions of dollars gov't grants..in perpetuity.. (Private/Public partnership) for the sanctuary (a million acres, at first) while retaining the water rights as their own personal property. OK, fine, profit motives are not evil. But come ON...motives anyone? Today's new billionaires are becoming as powerful as little third world countries within a country. How do you control these peoples' expansionist greed? Does anyone realize how much WATER T.Boone already owns? It's his "thing." Oil, schmoil.

I had been so curious about this apparently new age financial genius, Mr. Pickens, suddenly professing a love for windmills over oil. Then I saw the wife. He is 80, she is a beautiful young English blond who is mad for animals.. Oh. His conversion became more apparent. Can't blame the old guy for trying to help finance her latest passion, and who could afford it but the good old USA. Add to that, he could acquire several states' worth of WATER for himself. People, don't let a billionaire's PR sway you. Listen to Temple Grandin, she's like Mr. Spock with a PhD.