obama has lifted the ban on horse slaughter

I'm from the UK where we have always had slaughter yards with the option of you taking your horse to them or some that will come out to you and shoot the horse on your own yard. There is also the option of a local hunt kennels coming out to do the job and taking the carcass or having your vet to do the job. The passport system over there is still flawed but all the time efforts are being made to tighten up on it - it wasn't expensive per owner/per horse and at least when you buy a horse you have a record of its history. A horse presented for slaughter has to have a passport and it has reduced the numbers of horses being stolen for the meat market
Over the years I've had horse reach the end of their time and I've been at their side when they were shot. I've never had one panic at the thought of what was happening as they have no idea and its fast and over with.
In an ideal world we would have enough wonderful homes for all the horses bred but we don't live in that world
There aren't enough charities and rescue homes for all these unwanted horses and many that do get 'rescued' end up in homes that have no idea how to care for them
Closing the slaughter yards down in the US only put horses on appalling journeys to Canada & Mexico with no one to oversee how they were treated enroute or at the other end. All it did was increase their suffering
People dump unsound, problem and just plain unwanted horses in auctions then walk away and dream that they have gone to a good home rather than take responsibility for them
There needs to be more control of breeding to reduce numbers
Easy access to supervised slaughter yards for people who for whatever reason wont or can't pay to have a horse euthanised at home
Charities actually raising money to pay for horses to be euthanised at home where owners genuinely can't afford the costs
Slaughter is a necessary part of the real horse world, its not going to go away so making it as fear and pain free is the best way to go

I know this is off topic and going back quite a ways, but BSMS, if you ever can't keep him, let me know. I'm always in the market for a tough horse on the smaller side of things.

I'm sorry, but BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

I don't get what's funny about that lol.. not in a diaagreeing way.. just pulling a blank here.. oh and to the cows are harder to steal thing.. what if they are show steers? LOL they walk in trailers as well..

If you have ever loaded a bunch of cows (except those few that are halter broken) you would know that they are harder to catch, harder to load, and more trouble to haul than horses.

^^Depends on the horses. If they are relatively mellow or if they've been handled a lot or if they are halter broke, then they are usually pretty easy for someone with a bit of sense to load.

But, if they are full grown, never been touched, and never so much as seen a person, that can get dangerous in a hurry...even moreso than with cattle.

IMHO, at least you can load cattle from horseback without having to worry about one of them coming up to the horse your riding, arching their neck, squealing, and trying to start a fight.

We think he'll turn into a great 'first horse' for the grandkids to trail ride on. That gives us about a year before the oldest might be ready...he still has moments when he worries that a human will be mean to him. Particularly in an arena. I think he associates it with impatient people wacking on you...

We went to see something none horse related tonight that was advertised on CL. In the process of that, I was in the boondocks of SE Pa and passed a mini breeding farm. There were 10 foals in the field at least, with about 15 mares and 4 (that I saw) possible stallions.

I thought about this conversation while my soul cried a little while looking at these (assumed) over bred animals.

How do you know that they were not valuable, marketable animals?

If nobody breeds horses ever, then we will not have horses in 30 years or so.

I find it hard to believe that a responsible person breeding high quality horses would leave 4 stallions in a field together with a herd of mares. I'm surprised they weren't kicking the crap out of each other. You would have no idea what foal was by what stallion which means they can't have any breed registry. I know that actual known breeding doesn't mean you are essentially getting a better horse for the job but its the 'unknowns' and unhandled ones that are at the bottom of the price chain and most likely to end up on the road to a slaughter yard - maybe via some total novice who's bought them from a sale and thinks they've watched enough Youtube videos to work miracles with them and has no idea how much it costs to keep a horse properly
If you really want to see an end to horses being 'bred for slaughter then you would do better to be pushing for a countrywide policy that only allows breeding from approved stock at an approved rate until the market is stable again.