Are you pro-slaughter? POLL

It was Federally funded (the inspectors) with tax payers money also, for a product we don't use & the slaughter houses were owned by foreign companies.
We (USA) have rules & regulations too but not enough people to enforce them (again paid for by tax payers).
One rule is they cannot be transported in double decker trailers -but- only for the last leg of the journey.

But it is not about who uses the product of dead horses, you benefit from having the facility to humanely kill unwanted horses and owners get money for them. Paying taxes to keep things healthy and humane is just part of living in a civilised society which believes such things are important.

I'm sure that some of that may have been apart of it, but talking to people who can remember the incidents and having read a couple books, I know part of it was how horrible things were in a humane, clean sense. Would you wanna eat cattle treated in such a way? No, the meat would be worthless if there was meat to be had. I do think perhaps they overreacted, but I also think there will be little market in actually eating horse meat (and knowing about it).

With all the horse lovers constantly screaming, "NOSLAUGHTER" without thinking about it, I'm sure they'll watch it more closely in round 2. Also, I thought using double deckers was against regulations for any livestock anymore?

Here's a sample of "humane" There are no graphic visuals, just a guy talking but it's worth a listen. There is more than one video of the interview. This is #1 od 2 or 3- if can't remember exactly.
To me it's not what happens after you're dead but how you get dead.

No, only for horses because of the lack of head room but they are only looked at when they pull into the end destination. They get fined for violations but by then it's too late for the animals.
I'm sure many things were taken into consideration.
Slaughter was never offically illegal but the funding for inspectors was pulled & without inspectors the meat could not be used for human consumption. Obama has now reinstituted that funding, though one of his campaign promises was that he would not-but that's a whole other topic.
Two of the three Senators who proposed the refunding are from States where there are financial backers ready for the go ahead to build slaughter plants. The other one is Kohl (from my State) who is retiring. To me it stinks of pay offs.

Maybe the new plants will have stress free ways to kill horses but knowing the nature of horses I'd like to know what they plan. Even if they used humane methods like some countries where a horse is taken by itself into a pen & held for shooting that still wouldn't address the problem of transport. I can't see that method being used here (USA) because the main concern is to keep the line moving. Time is money.

I wish the edit button stayed up longer. I'm a terrible typer & am by some of my mistakes.

I hope they come with a better method. I know it's the killing itself and the time leading up to it, and that was always my problem before when I read about past slaughter houses for horses. I know in pig plants (never watched a video for cattle) that are ran properly will use a quick and fairly painless method. I'm not sure what it's called, but it basically looks like a metal stick that shoots something into the brain of the animal hard enough to kill them instantly. If they can use that for a horse, it'd make the process easier in that sense. Now to work on the making it a non-stressful environment leading to that point. (I agree with you so much there.)

I wish slaughter didn't have to be so flippin' complicated. But it seems to be, so I hope this does more benefit in the long run for everyone and everything involved.

You asked a question, am I pro-horse slaughter. Well no, but I am pragmatic, so it is a neccessary evil. I don't want to see any horse destroyed, I would love to save them all but of course that is not realistic or practical, unfortunately, horse slaughter is practical. My heart bleeds when I think too hard about horses being (any animal that we have loved as a pet, companion) sent to slaughter. I am sick of thinking about it already, my heart is heavy.

It always makes me sad to think that so many horse people are pro-slaughter. I guess it goes back to the days when I was a child and would cry and give anything for a horse. I look at horse ownership as an honor. I am in awe of horses.

I know we don't live in a perfect world. But we should at least work towards that goal. I can't help it, I don't feel horses should be food animals.

The crippled, sick and dangerous should be humanely euthanized. The others should be found a home. Maybe there are too many horses at the moment. But eventually if people breed less the market will stabilize. I don't feel slaughtering horses for the greed of money masked as being "humane" makes it right. It is a wrong in my mind no matter how anyone paints it. No one will ever convince me it is a good thing.

Maybe I am a dreamer, but to me horse slaughter is fundamentally wrong. Might as well make fur coats out of dogs and cats and have dog burgers at the grocery store. To me it's no different.

They've either passed or are working to pass legislation that prevents any slaughter-bound horses from traveling in double deckers at any point in the journey, including to the feedlot or intermediate stations. Hopefully this will help address at least that aspect of the problem.

And to me, it's no different than eating a cow or a pig. The former is very much like a horse, and the latter is very much like a dog.

I wish they would find something to do with the remains of all the millions of dogs and cats euthanized every year, instead of just taking up room rotting in landfills.