Of a truth, I understand the animal husbandry business. My husband and his family before him owned a livestock auction for about a 100 years - and he, of course, raised livestock.
But there is a huge difference between livestock and companion animals.
I have owned dogs, cats, fish, birds and horses as companion animals. None of them were food.
And had I ever raised a pig or sheep or goat as a companion, I wouldn't slaughter it for food either.
I was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. Some of the letters in the museum annex at the Alamo underscore the very point you were making, dearest sister in Christ. The men of Texas back in those frontier days considered their horses and dogs as dear and very necessary friends.
Horses are not pets. You can love them and take care of them, but they are not pets. They are work animals.
Regarding them as pets leads to this type of stupidity. Just ask the horse rescue people.