Exactly. What is the difference? Billions of cattle have their throats slit al-qaeda style, why the compassion for horses ? Or even cats and dogs for that matter ?
My personal objection to *all* meat consumption is wholly centered around the popular methods of slaughter. For smart, compassionate creatures, we humans should be able to come up with a painless, stress-free to dispatch our food. Heck, animals give us strength and life. It seems like that we could give them a little courtesy at the moment of their death.