The query is: how will you do. It is very important to get a niche marketplace that you're desperate to promote it their products.

Help_willie_nelson_save_the_ho.. Keen :)

I seen all these horses in this coral and i said to the man oh what georgous horses they are so spirited and the man looked at me and said dog food I WAS SICK FOR A MONTH COULDN'T eat sleep. I said to the man oh no don't even go there! My love for horses all my life. I couldn't find where the place was but please people these are the most beautiful creatures on this earth! People help support them how can anyone even think of slaughtering them.

It says in the Bible that we can only eat animals with a split hoof, horses are 1 solid hoof and horses are His majestic beast. A lot of people are going to have to answer to God someday for inhumanely killing horses for human food.

I don't understand what the outrage is? If you are against the killing and eating of animals then fair enough, but to choose which animals we can kill to eat and which ones we cant is illogical. As people have pointed out in various countries various animals are eaten including frogs, rats and dogs as are chicken, cows and baby lambs. In certain parts of the world people think Cows are sacred and would never think of eating them, but we think nothing of tucking into that juicy hamburger.Furthermore it is not only "third world" countries that eat horse, correct me if i'm mistaken but in France they also eat horse. Everybody loves something and to say 1 culture is right is ethnocentric.

Hi Ellen,

I am one of your faithful viewers and an ardent supporter of our nations beautiful horses. I have five I rescued from slaughter, Three PMU's a Mustang and an old appaloosa who was waiting his death in a Washington feedlot. They are all sane, kind and loving pets. They are not livestock. They have done nothing wrong to anyone and deserve to live long and happy lives.
If the killers are so right and horse overpopulation is the problem, why do they steal them to slaughter? Why do the killers show up pretending to be a good home to get unsuspecting peoples horses?
If they are so right why are they so deceptive?
I thought that in this day and age America was supposed to be civilized. Horse slaughter is barbaric. We have a long way to go as a Nation and must get this legislation passed.

to all of you who think that eating horse meat in the third world countries is barbaric, you need to think about what you are eating. Yes horses are vaccinated and are wormed and given antibiotics and such, so are cattle chickens and hogs!! You eat the meat everyday, and so has your parents and so has your grandparents, nothing happened to them. There is nothing wrong with horse meat. In earlier times horses saved many troops from starving, many families from starving and also many native americans. No longer do we need to eat horses, but what right do we have to tell someone else they cannot? We do not eat dog and cat but many countries still do. I hear so
many of you "compassionate" people scream unpatriotic
what is so unpatriotic about eating a horse? Give me your address and address of 10 of your friends and send 500.00 for traveling expenses(per person) and you to can own a all american unwanted red white and blue horse!! Please include a color preference since there are 50,000 or more to choose from. Make sure you line up a place to keep it and have a vet on stand by because it will most likely be starving and crippled.

This slaughter issue has become critical. The public needs to get used to the idea that there is nowhere to go with the thousands of unwanted horses. The law already passed only made things worse for the horses.
Many kind hearted, well-meaning people have responded to the “don’t slaughter the horses” message.
At first thought all of us who love horses react this way. When you consider the long term, that cannot be the solution. Compare it to the situation with unwanted dogs and cats. What would happen if we outlawed the local SPCAs from euthanizing pets? There are simply too many dangerous, old, crippled and unwanted horses for our country to absorb. People who cannot afford to feed, much less properly dispose of their horses are starving them in back yards, turning them loose in hidden pastures, parks, roadways and even highways.

If a horse is too thin, it is turned away from the auction and the owner, often cannot give it away. The rescues are filled and there is often not enough feed available if there was room.
Now that it is unlawful to slaughter horses for human consumption in this country, they are still sent to slaughter but must be hauled thousands of miles to plants in Mexico or Canada where we have no control over their treatment en route or in the plants. Keeping them from exiting the country interferes with our right to commerce.

People are NOT euthanizing them. If they did, it involves an average of 1000# of dead horse waste to pollute the environment or to be cremated, using 200 gallons of fuel. Since the life span of a horse is usually twenty years or more and unwanted horses would accumulate at the rate of 138,000 a year, they would be a huge undertaking to maintain.

As it now is written the proposed law to fix the problem is totally flawed. It refers to sored horses which was a term used in a very different context during the fifties. This law leaves it up to various interpretation by whatever officer is involved. He could be prejudiced, yet could have the authority to confiscate an animal (or animals) as well as the trailer without due process and hold said horse without the owner’s control. I see no mention of horses intended for slaughter in this. It reads like the intent is to make it possible for horses to be impounded. A horse that pulls up lame at any competition could be held without recourse or control of the owner. Isn’t this infringing on our right to our personal property under the constitution and our freedom to move our animals from place to place within this country?

It was kinder to the horses to be killed in US controlled plants than what we have now and this proposed law will not help at all. It will merely work a hardship on horse owners .

To me, it is very important that a vote of NO on HR503 / 311 is the way to go.
Arlee Fairbanks

I can sympathise with people who love horses but is it fair to destroy an industry just because you have greater affection for a particular animal?

You would have to admit to being a hypocrite if you campaign against horse slaughter and then gleefully sink your teeth into a burger, hotdog, chicken sandwich, lamb chop...etc. Before you cry "atrocity" think about the mouse traps you've set to snap the neck of that "annoying little rodent". Think of the poison you laid to make it blind and disoriented till it died of dehydration.

Its almost guaranteed that equine enthusiasts will oppose this so called "cruelty" however they happily impose their own torturous desires on the animals at the same time. Torturous you ask? Think about being confined to a paddock for your whole life after your genitalia were forcibly removed. Then on a regular basis (whenever master desires) you have a saddle strapped to your back, a bridal gagging your mouth and someone sit on you kicking your sides until you are forced to jump a fence that you know is risky because with the added weight of the gleeful ignorant rider you are likely to break your leg doing something you would never do under your own free will!!! (Breathe) ...and then some do break their legs...and then master evaluates the cost of repair...and then shoots the crippled ex-loved-one.

I am not a protesting vegetarian hippy. I love to eat meat and know that if I do, I should KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT!

Thanks to Mickie :)

First I want to correct a misconception.

To Cathy Potter, I am one of those who wrote in that didn't oppose slaugher. I am NOT pro slaughter. I just happen to not be anti-slaughter. I don't think any horse lover wants to see their horse that they raised, trained, shown, rode, end up in slaughter. I want the horses we raised and trained to go to good loving homes. But I'm also able to understand that without slaughter the horse market has been descimated.

Secondly, someone mentioned that some of us are in it for the money. Well, yes. We are. But it's a labor of love. I love horses. My son loves horses. That's why we do what we do. If I had a passion for architecture or healing the sick or defending the innocent I'd be in one of those fields. So I should be condemned for making money off of my horses? I guess ranchers should be too for selling cattle to make those McDonald's burgers most of us eat (or whatever kind of beef you happen to like).

I don't know about where some of you live, but in my county if you don't BREED at least 2 foals per year you don't qualify for the agriculture exemption. So if anything was ever passed to limit breeding, my property taxes would be about 5 times what they currently are - and many of my neighbors. I'd have to move. I couldn't afford to live where I do.

To Diane, you're right. It's very emotional. As I stated before I couldn't stand to think of one of my horses go to slaughter. But I also don't want one of my horses to be shipped to Mexico for slaughter where the conditions are MUCH worse.

To Lucille, you're right, those that abuse horses would never send them directly to slaughter. Very few actual horse "owners" ever do that. No, they take them to the local auction house where they are auctioned to the kill buyers who then send them to slaughter. So while you are correct, those that are neglecting their horses because they can't feed them anymore wouldn't sell them to the slaughter house, they would take them to the auction. Now they DO NOT have that option so that the horses sit in their backyards getting skinnier and skinnier.

I personally work with many different horse rescue organizations. I don't know of a single one that can take in one more horse at this time. They turn horses away every day.

While there has always been some need for horse rescues, and their need has waxed and waned all through the course of history, all rescues I've worked with agree that this is one of the roughest times for them, they can't afford to be as full as they are. They hate turning horses away but they have no choice.

To Amanda Moyers, you are dead on right. Slaugher is terrible. But if the gov't had just fixed what was wrong, come up with a humane way to end the life of a horse (and cattle, hogs, turkeys, etc) then it would be so much better for the horses.

I also think the gov't should have come up with a plan. No, they just make the laws, let someone else figure out how to make it work. THEY DON'T CARE about animal welfare. They didn't care to learn about the issue. They sure didn't care enough to try to come up with a solution. I haven't seen anything come through for budgeting to add dollars to rescue organizations. Most are run on barely a shoestring budget.

Most rescues feed inferior feed and hay because that's all they can afford. Most are run by someone who's spouse works full time and they personally fund it. For them, it's a labor of love. But nowadays, it's becoming more labor and with them having to turn away horses every day it's a labor of tears.

I hope that everyone that is against horse slaughter is a vegan. Do you know what happens in US turkey killing plants? It's much worse than anything you can imagine that happened to a horse. And how many of you have seen the videos from Mexico? Think about that the next time you sit down to Thanksgiving.

I doubt that a law will pass to ban the sale of slaughter horses to Mexico (heard of a little thing called NAFTA?). I just don't think it will happen. And if it does, the horse's life in the US will get worse.

They are literally trying to sell horses for $50 at the auctions - good using horses. I've seen it first hand. And no one is buying. Because those in the business know no one is buying we can't even buy a horse and turn it around. One segment of our early horse training days was just that, buy horses at the auctions out from under the kill buyers, retrain and/or rehab it and sell it to a good home. It was a good business. We can no longer do that. There just isn't a market for horses in the $1000 to $5000 range. We've had to move our entire business base to the high dollar horses that most of us (including us) can't afford.

And most of the people against slaughter are right. Dead on the money. I can't argue with them. Slaughter is awful. The true root of this evil is the high cost/care of the horse and the number of "backyard" breeders who'll breed any ugly horse to any ugly horse. Most people don't understand the care and commitment required. But like having kids, there is no test for them to take before they own one.

The bottom line is, we just keep making laws - by people who haven't even seen a live horse close up. They don't vote for what they believe in. They vote for who makes the most noise so that they'll get re-elected. That's the real problem with America. If we could fix that, we wouldn't have any of these problems we've been discussing.