Here in Toronto there are a few French bistros that specialize in horse meat. I've never been but I'll admit I'm curious about it. Different cultures consume different animals. In North America we eat cows and pigs daily, which would horrify millions of Hindus, Muslims and Jews around the world. I think the real issue here is the described conditions of these Canadian slaughterhouses, which is definitely surprising and unacceptable if true. But to me the real issue here is not horse-specific: any animal we eat should be slaughtered humanely. To make horsemeat illegal while continuing to eat cows, pigs and chickens from awful factory forms is somewhat hypocritical.

You are disputing that 99% of animals killed are killed in the ways I described? You seriously are trying to tell people that the BILLIONS of animals killed in this country are grass fed and slaughtered by lethal injection? Seriously?

"There are none so blind as those who will not see."

We have all kinds of slaughterhouses in the U.S. Why are we shipping horses off to Mexico for inhumane slaughter when we could be doing it more humanely here?

. . .should have read "animals killed for food."

Don't get me started on all the other ways humans get their rocks off killing animals. . .

I ate horse in Switzerland and loved it. I wish it was legal in the States, I'd go get me some horse steak today. No different than eating cow or ostrich or lamb or whatever.

They find it horrific to eat either. My Opa in Germany always said that a horse is a much healthier eater than a cow. Pferdwurst anyone?

Horse Meat is delicious, I've eaten it at a Bistro in Paris and I've had it raw in Japan where they call it 'sakura-niku' or Cherry Meat due to its color. Especially today where beef is fed nothing but corn that makes them sick some of the best meat can be had from these pampered pets. The only difference between a Cow and a Horse is that one is cuter than the other. Both Animals feel pain when they die. After they die it is no consequence what happens to their meat. Either people or worms are going to eat that flesh. The fact that this incredible meat is leaving the US is just further proof that Americans are living in denial of their own animal nature and mortality.

She's an amazing person and writer and she's right. You can't stop slaughter by wishful thinking and half-assed laws, most of which simply send the butchery over to another country. We'd do better by horses in the US if we had strict humane slaughter laws and ENFORCED THEM.

I am a horse lover from way back when, though I can't afford to have one. I do see a difference in how we are expected to treat companion animals over livestock; but horses (as others have said) tread a gray area between the two. Some horses are very definitely human companions, and needed to be treated as pets. But others are really not -- they are farm animals or high strung racers.

And horses are one thing above all else; they are BIG. A lot of you city folk simply are not getting this. It's not like "saving cats". These are half-ton animals who eat like...well, horses. Their vet care is unbelievably expensive. They need land to live on, hay, barns, exercise. When they get to old to work or race or be ridden, they present a unique liability -- they require the same amount of food, more vet care and yet they now are "useless". This is a terrifying "perfect storm" of needs that conflict with the humans who own them, and it results in the situations in the article, which are mostly abhorrent.

There is terrible overbreeding, especially of race horses, with people greedily trying to get as much money out of their animals as they can. It becomes a vicious cycle (not unlike puppy overbreeding); you love a certain breed, you want to keep them, it's expensive, you want to ameliorate the expenses by breeding your animals...you continue to do it, to raise money and end up with too many animals. The US has far, FAR too many horses for the non-agrarian, car-centric place that it is (and don't get me started on the surplus of cats and dogs).

If you want a horse as a companion animal, you should (if you are remotely a moral or decent human being) accept that you have taken on a 20 year plus responsibility -- that you must house and feed and care for this large critter, often long after you can ride or race him. That is a hard bitter pill for some supposed "horse lovers" to swallow; they want the handsome riding horse or the high strung racer, but they really don't want to care for an older or sickly animal down the road.

One absolute human truth is that when we get "stuck", when we find that there is a conflict between the thing we desire and the long term responsibility ... well you know what is going to lose out. And a lot of horse owners (like dog or cat owners) PANIC when faced with a large vet bill, or the reality of shooting and burying a sick horse. They haven't planned for this, and they choose the easy, cruel, heartless solution.

If you visit or work at any sort of animal shelter in your community, you can see this in abundance on a daily basis. People abandon dogs and cats without a blink of an eye, and this are animals who live in our houses and sleep on our beds. And they don't weigh 1200 lbs.

I'd like to see the lives of horses made better, and I think Ms. Grandin is absolutely correct. Like unwanted pets, we have to face the fact that some horses are going to have to be destroyed, and as they are also large livestock, it makes sense to utilize them after death. I think we also have the right and moral responsibility to demand that their deaths be painless and swift, and we have the ability to do that in THIS country, but not if we turn our backs and let them be shipped off to Mexico and Canada.

In the meantime, I hope that education and some stricter regulations on breeding can hold down the numbers of unwanted horses; I really wish that big organizations like AQHA and others would step forward and take some leadership. It is obscene to keep breeding large numbers of horses only to see so many of them end up destroyed. The wasteful arrogance is sickening. Part of the licensure for racing should require a "life plan" so that owners make some semblance of an attempt to plan for the future lives of their horses after their racing years. Very few horses are Secretariat and most have little breeding value.

Mostly this isn't about horses; it's about US HUMANS. We have stewardship of the earth and the living things on it, and frankly, we aren't exactly doing a shining good job of caring for things. Horses may not seem that important if you don't sincerely love them as I do, but they are one area in which we could be working constructively at being more responsible, humane and decent towards the creatures under our dominion, and we truly need to step up to the plate here.