This year more than 125,000 U.S. horses will be killed for the lucrative export of meat to Europe and Japan.

At the New Holland Auction, in the heart of Pennsylvania farm country, an average of 275 horses a week go off with meat buyers.

"People need to know. If you send a horse to the auction, those guys sitting in the front row aren't buying for a pleasure ranch," says Marc Paulhus, director of Equine Protection for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

"Purebred horses plunged to a fraction of the paper value", says Paulhus. "Arabians who had quadrupled in price, or in some cases soared to 10 times their initial value to a paper value of $100,000, were slaughtered."

"We don't eat our dogs. We don't eat our cats. We don't eat our horses", says Cathleen Doyle of the California Equine Council.

All the horses saved by rescue groups and sanctuaries combined don't add up to 1 percent of this nation's discarded horses. We must raise public awareness as to why so many horses suffer such an undeserved fate.

If you are lucky enough to be responsible for such a noble creature, make a promise to never lose track of what becomes of your horse. You have the responsibility of ensuring that your horse has a humane life, and ultimately, a peaceful death with dignity.
Excerpts taken from ASPCA Animal Watch Magazine, Spring 1998.