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While the citations below display amazing arrogance, I don't think it is 
because the author is mean-spirited.  Quite the opposite, the author cares 
a great deal about the ultimate fate of unwanted horses.  What is also 
clear is that the author has never had to make the hard choices faced by 
those whose fortunes have suffered a severe decline.  The criticism of 
"living in an ivory tower" applies here.  It is almost always tragic when 
those who know nothing of a problem, except the surface symptoms, take it 
upon themselves to impose a solution born of their compassion... and ignorance.

> ...there is NO NEED to eat dog and horses in this country, so
> this should be a dead issue.
Only one who has never been hopelessly poor could make this statement.
When you don't have the money to feed your family, you will do almost
anything you can to get free food.  Getting "gov'mint" help is often not a
choice because of fear/distrust of the Feds/law.  So while dumpster diving
is pretty much reserved for urban dwellers, the rural poor hunt and kill
whatever they can.

> Based on this fact...acquiring excess animals that cannot be cared for
> as one would care for one's own child, is going to become econimically
> unprofitable, and the people who are doing it will eventually think twice.
"...one's own child"?  Animals are not children.  While a human may form a
parent-like bond with her/his animals, this doesn't change the animal's
status to that of a child nor can the same standards of care be expected.
A cat goes missing and the owner files a police report expecting an APB to
go out?  Not hardly.  Nor is treating an animal like a child usually wise.

"...think twice"?  Most animal owners, judging by the kill rates for pounds
and "shelters", don't think even once about what will happen to the
creatures that come into their possession.  The notion that cramming
unwanted animals down society's collective throat will change the
perceptions of the millions of people who see animals as disposable
commodities is unjustified by any known facts.

> But it will take time for the new habits and practices to become
> established...  I am confident that the next generation will do things
> more efficiently and humanely.
And this is the worst.  What you are saying here is that while indifferent
animal owners learn to be responsible, it is acceptable for the horses to
pay the price for the change.  There is absolutely no proof, anywhere in
human history, to indicate that punishing one group has ever influenced
another group to change its moral compass, yet you are willing to torture,
starve and allow to die a most painful death, hundreds of thousands of
horses, every year, in the vain hope that the least conscientious members
of our society will awake to the suffering.  Even if this plan had a ghost 
of a chance of working, which it doesn't, the means (the horrible suffering 
of horses) irreparably tarnishes the postulated noble end (the next 
generation being more humane).



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