Ok... time to dig myself a hole I guess. Everyone needs to re-read exactly what was banned. The only thing banned is "horse slaughter for human consumption". There are still rendering plants, rendering has not been banned so there will still be horses sold for "slaughter" it's just got a different name. I ask you to take a good long hard look at this bill and tell me what good it has done? What difference does it make what happens to the animal AFTER it's dead? By that point it no longer cares, heck when I'm dead send me to the pygmys in New Guinea for a meal! I wont care, I'll be DEAD! Just don't torture me before then. THAT is what needs to be changed and regulated, not the actual slaughtering itself. I would much rather know a minute or two of fear before I died than spend weeks, sometimes months being abused and tortured without food or water. I am not against horse slaughter. Do I want my equines sent off to the rendering plant? NO! Would I do everything in my power to stop that from happening? YES! But as long as there are those in the equine industry overbreeding just to have one slim chance of getting that "perfect" foal and making a buck there will be the need for rendering. Think about what will happen to all those foals that weren't "perfect" and all the brood mares too old to breed if this option wasn't available. They'd be left out in a pasture/dry lot somewhere to die a slow and painful death by starvation. Which is worse?

What the american people need to do is stop worrying about the fact that "Flicka" might end up on some Europeans dinner table and start worrying about HUMANE REGULATION BEFORE slaughter/rendering. What happens after the fact is just that, after the fact. Let's do something about the treatment our beloved animals get BEFORE.