Some people believe that that horses are property and owners have a right to do what they want with them, including send them to slaughter if they see fit.

Horses are our property; We buy and sell them, breed them, and care for them. But unlike other property that we own, horses are also living creatures that require certain care. Should horse owners have the right to beat or starve their horses to death? Should they have the right to neglect their horses? Most people would say no-- and we have laws that protect horses from such abuse. The accepted form of humane euthanasia for equines is a lethal injection, or in emergency cases, a bullet to the head. Slaughterhouse methods do not provide a quick, humane death, and according to most eyewitnesses treatment of horses can often be brutal. For example, because the meat is to be used for human consumption, it must be bled-- resulting in horses that have had their throats severed while still alive. We have laws that protect our dogs and cats from such treatment; why not our horses? Cats and dogs are not livestock, they are companion, show, and sporting animals just like horses. Shouldn't horses be offered the same protection?

I think we can all agree that an owner should be able to make descisions as to what will happen with their horses, but the biggest difference between animals and other property is that they are alive. Animals are individual living beings that need responsible owners to provide for their needs.. If you leave a car alone for a week, it doesn't suffer, but a horse does. We have laws that protect animals from abuse, because unlike other property, they are alive and have the capacity to suffer.

Horse owners have certain responsibilities. It's our responsibility to make sure our horses are fed and watered, sheltered from the elements, and given adequate room to live in. We treat their injuries, muck their stalls, deworm them, and trim their hooves. When a horse is old or suffering, I believe it's also our responsibility to do one last thing for them, to give them one last shot, like the 4-ways and the tetanus shots we give every year. Making sure our horses are put to rest when they no longer have quality of life is the final task of a responsible horse owner.

The good news is that most horses owners are responsible, and most horses will never end up in a slaughterhouse. The numer of horses slaughtered has decreased by large amount over the past fewyears, and fewer than half of a percent -- .07% to be exact-- will ever become horsemeat.