Get something straight. Starving horses are being neglected, they are not the ones headed to slaughter, particularly slaughter for human consumption. Slaughter buyers don’t want bones, they want nice healthy fat ones - heavy ones... the bigger the better.
The existence of slaughter as an option has not, and will never, have one effect on people who are neglecting animals. Slaughter as a necessary solution to neglect is a myth... and a red herring.
That's not what happens. But that sort of thing was not commonly seen BEFORE Congress failed to provide funds for horsemeat inspections.
The anti-horse slaughter crowd thought they'd eliminated the practice ~ instead, they made keeping, and disposing of horses, even more brutal than it had been.