Most of the time the irresponsible horse owner that is the most to blame for the thousands of unwanted horses will not or cannot pay to get them euthanized, usually they starve them in their backyard or dump them on others or to fend for themselves and starve.
Every so often there will be news stories about horses left to starve. So sad. Breaks my heart.
Whose fault are the horses starving today? Because there very much is a slaughter market.
Neglect may in fact be on the rise, with this economy, but it really is not connected to the existence of slaughter. It's not the bony starved ones going to slaughter. It is a myth that slaughter will solve that problem. It hasn't yet.