Slaughter of Horses was a nessessary tool of the Horse industry as a whole, to keep it economicly sound as it disposed of the the aged,disabled,untrainable and unwanted individuals who were of no use in the general population.By and large horses are a use animal for livestock operations ,racing,showing,breeding and pleasure mounts and are not considered "pets" by professionals with in the industry. It is only the occasional users, "city slicks", and animal rights fanatics that really consider horses to be pets and treat them as such.By taking away the fuctions of slaughter houses the nessessary manner to eliminating the unwanted horses in our society has caused a huge injury to the industy as a whole and until that source of elimination is resolved and fully funtioning again horses shall continue to be abused as has never happened in history until the do- gooders eliminated horse slaughter.Any intelligent individual who has functioned within the horse industry can clearly see the significant escalation of animal abuse cases across the country wheather true or imagined by do-gooders who have no vested interest in the true welfare of horses since the elimination of slaughter houses as a nessessary means of disposing of sick or unwanted horses.

Where we live there are many unwanted horses, but no real way to dispose of them. Because of the economic situation and the prolonged western drought, owners can no longer afford to feed them. The lucky ones are given away to someone who has the resources to care for them. The others are standing in mud lots with their ribs sticking out. Local animal control is doing the best they can to collect these and get them adopted or sent to rescue people but both of those groups are financially strapped, too.

I agree that any horse from recreational or racing origins needs to have a rather lengthy waiting period to make sure that any drugs, anhelminthics or other medications and treatments have cleared and I am not sure whether USDA has set up the appropriate precautions yet. I have read that this was recently a problem with some horse meat processed in Mexico and sent to Europe.

On our farm we have the finances to be able to euthanise and dispose of an older or sick animal that is in pain, but many folks do not. Where we farm the disposal often costs more than the vet. euthanasia. I have seen animals put down with a rifle and it is just as humane as an injection if done properly. I cannot comment on the bolt method as I have never seen it used on equines.

Horse rescue groups are great outfits that do excellent work, and I really wish more people would send their donations to them rather than to the political groups like HSUS. That would at least help to alleviate the problem, since the $$ go directly to the problem.

Still, the problem will remain of what to do with the huge numbers of horses out west which cannot be adopted. It would seem there are two choices; slaughter or euthanasia and disposal. The first choice is more economical since there is a market for the meat, but aforementioned problems regarding drug and other residues is a definite issue along with making sure that all treatment is as humane as possible.

The second choice, euthanasia and disposal is much more expensive but definitely humane and guarantees no residues enter the food chain either here or overseas, but who can afford to do this? It's a tough problem right now. Since it really hurts me to see animals suffering in dirt lots I have to say that I could support horse slaughter but only if the appropriate safety and humane handling issues are solved.

Horses are suffering due to people that mean well but are not really in tune with the reality of the situation. A good horse is now almost impossible to give away and all horses are not "good" which means not suitable for people to be around. Horses are starved, abandoned, dropped and even turned out on the public right of ways. There are horror stories, true or not, of horses that have to make the trip to slaughter houses in Mexico or Canada.
I'm a rancher and horse owner and I support USDA inspections and am for the humane treatment of all animals but realistically horses are worse off now than they were previously and it's time to come to some good common sense in dealing with this issue.

What is wrong with a breeding fee, a license to own, a tax on racing, a fee on auctions, a equine tax ? People are missing the point. Horsemeat is dangerous to herd all these sick unwanted wild sick healthy stolen horses together -you are just asking for ruin to our cattle industry. Competition for resources, trucking, sales, markets, vets, inspections, meds, innoculations, feed, hay, and WATER. When you lose your water and grazing to horse killers raising and collecting any and all - the consquences will "kill" the USDA Beef reputation. Protect the reputation - last thing is another Mad Horse Disease shut down which will spill over! And all for 1% of the horse population so kill buyers can sell to Europe .

Horses were not brought into this country as companion animals, or "pets." We have made them that way. Horse slaughter needs to happen for many reasons, and unless you understand how in-depth livestock production is you probably won't get why people support it. It really has nothing to do with exports or sending the meat overseas- this is just a niche market we (the US) could take advantage of. By allowing horse slaughter the condition of horses would improve over the nation for points already said above. Feed costs and proper disposal is a HUGE issue for most.

I think this vompany is stupid and they are only trying to cost us to pay more money to them because cant make money off a horse no more. I read one comment here and really chapped but ...... S about what,they said. The way people think is down right stupid and ignorent. Its never been the horses fault,, it the peoples fault for all of these horses, everybody is breeding them to make money thinking they,will have a million dollar horse and seldom the outcome to many time and now people turn to slaughtering these unwanted horses, I think it crap that people cant admit that they screwed this up by breeding to many horses. I think , county,state and feds need to get together and regulate breeding of horses by either banning breeding of horses for a certain period of time but be aggresive about enforcing laws on breeding horses.
Like one person commented about the need for slaughter, what are we to do give horses like blm mustang program that we spend alot of money every year, no they said slaughter was only way, my thinking if people think that way, maybe we should slaughter people on welfare system in our country and sell them to other countries for slaughter because they cost us money every month instead of pulling there own weight, I think not because its not right and neither is horse slaughter. So all of the people out there for slaughtering of innocent horses and probalbly the very ones that made us over populate the horses because could make money either way, kiss my a..ss and I hope our government shuts you all down and I am one person and it will be one person to be heard and you will lose this battle by far, I wish they all go under the wayside I am glad they cant produce horse meat for other countries and I know others will stsnd behind what I am saying, burn in hell horse slaughter lovers.