I don't understand the objection. If one can justify slaughtering cattle, sheep, and pigs, why not horses?

I loathe double standards...

Like, I get opposing slaughterhouses or commercial farming of meat, for very practical reasons. All cool. In fact, that cow that most people don't give a shit about, is probably as personable and intelligent as the horse that eating is generally taboo.

I grew up in a family that ate whatever meat. I've had horse before. I mentioned that in mixed company once and the outrage was shocking to me. I didn't understand it. They all ate beef at that meal. Had none of them ever met a cow before?

I am not a vegetarian, and probably never will be, but inconsistency, and casual cruelty certainly offend me. That I get. Arbitrarily selecting a species as taboo to eat? I don't get it.

Perhaps there is no double standard though. The idea seems to be that a small overseas market does not justify the government being involved in inhumane treatment of horses. The domestic market for beef is, of course, gigantic. I am not sure there is a principled difference here, but at least there is an attempt at one.

There is a fairly large market for dog in countries like South Korea, Laos and Vietnam. Would you support slaughter houses to send dog meat (or cat meat) to those countries?
Not trying to be an ass, but every society has restrictions on what is considered acceptable types of food. India it's beef.
I live in Korea and don't eat dog, fish or duck. It may seem inconsistent and troubling to you, but it's not for me.

I would be upset if they were rounding up people's pets to fill that market. That's like... Typical capitalism, stealing people's pets and selling it for meat.

But I wouldn't view raising farmed dogs for food any differently than farmed pigs.

The anti-smuggling team in Thailand would agree with you.

reference to Thailand. In Thailand they don't eat dog, they find it disgusting. That being said, there is a market in Laos and Vietnam. So smugglers round up dogs and ship them (alive) into Laos and Vietnam where they are killed and served as food. (The killing in those countries, as well as in China and Korea, is rather grotesque) His argument is, he could stop most of the smuggling in animals if there wouldn't be such a huge blowback from them killing the dogs in Thailand and shipping the meat off to Laos and Vietnam from other countries - countries they rely on for tourist dollars

and the slaughterhouses also take horses who were put down due to old age and/or injury.

I guess the people objecting are the ones who can afford to keep horses as pets and playthings.

The whole thing is silly and sentimental.

Pigs are smarter than any fucking horse but people would die if they banned bacon.

in Mexico instead? That's not very humane.

We slaughter cows, chickens, goats, and pigs. What makes horses so special?

But I guess hypocrisy is par for our nation nowadays....

If there is a ban on the slaughter of horses then someone, somewhere is going to have to come up with money to take care of them. The equine rescue here in my area is full, full, full and are way short of the money needed for adequate feed. They could face a situation before spring where they will have to put down some old sick animals so the rest have food.

You drive in the rural part of the state you will see many horses starving, particularly this time of year. Something must be done to ease the suffering of these poor starved animals.

Only a hoarder would be surrounded by sick and starving animals.

They're called "animal shelters." And in all but 17 states, it's perfectly legal to slaughter animals with carbon monoxide gas - which is dangerous as hell not only because it'll kill a human as easily as it'll kill a dog, but because it's a fuel gas with a very high potential for causing explosions.

Read: http://site.americanhumane.org/site/DocServer/Euthanasia_Laws_by_State.pdf?docID=7906

Natural Gas can. Which one is used?

Lower explosion limit of carbon monoxide: 12.5 percent. Upper explosive limit is 74.2 percent

http://www.airgas.com/documents/pdf/001014.pdf

Emergency overview of CO:
flammable gas
may cause flash fire
may be fatal if inhaled
may cause target organ damage

Natural gas has a much narrower flammable range - LEL is 4.8 percent, UEL is 15 percent. Natural gas isn't a poison gas, but a simple asphyxiant - meaning it kills you by replacing air rather than poisoning you like CO does, and that takes a while. So they wouldn't choose that gas for euthanasia anyway.

Consider myself corrected.

The ones I have left are pets. Years ago, I ate some of them but I had an epiphany when one of my old nanny goats grieved terribly when her kids were sold and I suddenly realized they all had feelings. I know, I know how could I think goats don't have feelings when my dogs and cats clearly did. I stopped selling them for meat production and let them be pets. I never had a herd of cows, I would get 2-3 at a time, I stopped raising them for my own and my friends consumption. Anyway, I am conflicted about horse slaughter, there are an awful lot of horses that are not being cared for, there are an awful lot of horses run through auctions and sent on their way to god only knows what fate, I've gotten horses from auction, they are not raised for food production,some of them are pretty pitiful. We don't raise horses for work, we don't raise horses for food, we raise horses mostly for our own pleasure but in every state I'm aware of they are considered livestock and not pets. The horse slaughter business is due to people who for whatever reason,no longer want that particular horse.
We do kinda have dog and cat slaughter, we just call it animal control. Either way, dead is dead. Whether it is being scooped up by ac and spending the last days in a pen, or being jammed on a trailer going to Mexico, dog or horse, it's not a kind end. Yet, I see the need for both slaughterhouses and animal control. And people with the best intentions sometimes can no longer care for animals they thought they would have forever.
My last sweet little goat died a week ago, she died in my arms. It was kinda sudden, I miss her terribly. She loved a cold beer on a hot day and enjoyed sharing a bag of dorito's with me. As they age and die, I have not accumulated any more animals but I will do all I can to give them a humane end of life.Not everyone can do that, I just hope I outlive them all because some of them are quite old.

If so, slaughter on!

So I'm told by certain asians who also eat dog