An anti-slaughter moment

For the first time last week, I met someone face-to-face who is anti-horse-slaughter. I've spoken to many of this type over the phone for articles, but had yet to actually meet a horse-owning proponent of the slaughter house closures.
I didn't actually just meet this lady, I work with her. I was discussing a rather poor piece of horseflesh (bad conformation, etc.) when she pointed out that currently if this horse were to be sold, he would probably end up in a slaughter house. I promptly replied, "So what?"
This response made "Laura" (name changed for privacy and diplomacy) aghast. "Don't you know what they do to the horses there?" she asked me.
I know exactly what happens "there", as in the slaughter houses in Mexico where horses are brutally stabbed. No, that is not a death I wish on any animal.
I said, "In the States, slaughter was humane and efficient. Don't you know those videos you watch come from Mexico?" I'm referring to horrific scenes of painful torture caught on hidden camera that are broadcast on YouTube by the crazies that run PETA (and probably don't own horses.)
Laura informed me she was part of the group that lobbied to have the U.S. slaughter houses closed. She then stated the horse we were speaking of could end up on someone's table.
"So what? It doesn't bother me if someone else eats horse meat."
Cue second aghast response and the statement, "Are you sure you don't have balls in those jeans?"
I laughed so hard.
My stance on people consuming horse meat is thus: As long as it's not my horse, have at it. In fact, horse meat is very much a staple for some third world populations, and I have no problem with that. It's kind of the same with dog: Don't touch my dog, and I don't care what you eat.
Laura said, "Horses in America are pets, not food!"
Ah ha. That special word, "pet".
Pet: {noun} A domestic or tamed animal or bird kept for companionship or pleasure and treated with care and affection.

As I write and research this post, I find it becoming more difficult to argue that horses are not pets, because as agriculture uses shrink in favor of ATVs or simply abandoned, more and more equines end up as pets.
Thus, the "pet" becomes the problem. That emotional attachment Americans develop to their pets is one that is strong and is unfortunately becoming unreasonable. And I'm not talking Gucci pet products and other outlandish eccentricities.
To keep this post from becoming an entire essay on letting your emotions guide your laws, I'll wrap it up with these thoughts.
The American Veterinary Medical Association has an extensive page discussing the unwanted horse issue. In it, it describes the penetrating captive bolt method (used at the U.S. slaughter houses when open) as an acceptable form of euthanasia (meaning "good death") and it's "greener" than chemicals. Specifically, they say: "When applied correctly, unconsciousness is instantaneous and they induce death more rapidly than chemical euthanasia."
We need to stop the thousands of horses from dying a horrible death in Mexico when here in America, slaughter houses can be regulated by the USDA and made to be the safest, most humane option for America's unwanted horses.

I love my Lena. She's beautiful, wouldn't you agree?

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Genesis 1:27–28 (NIV)