[Princess Doreen]

Mrs. Rip Van Winkle has awoken from her nap. And nobody missed me either. But I'm going to give my 2 cents on a subject which I am passionate about.

There are horse breeders/owners/trainers who depend on the kill buyer stopping by their barns on a regular basis taking away their unwanted equines for $300 - $500/head.

No slaughter and no transport? No kill buyer! No kill buyer? A boatload of horse breeders, owners and trainers no longer breeding, owning, racing poorly bred horses on nothing more than 100% speculation. And, horse thievery would greatly diminish.

There will always be abuse, neglect and abandonment. But, it should not be blamed on the fact that slaughter ceases to exist in the USA.

The problem of overpopulation, overbreeding, over ownership, horse theft, horse slaughter didn't happen over night. Many years in the making - many decades even.

The problem is complex - many stages and it may take years to see a drastic improvement - perhaps a decade.

But, by first attacking the problem by legislating breeding and ownership is going to cause a backlash and accusations of government interference. We can't get legislators to get the slaughter bill into law. Do you really think they'll craft legislation to limit breeding and ownership?

Cutting off the profitability of horse slaughter will lead to "voluntary" and drastic cutbacks in breeding, owning and racing inferior equines.

It's the simple start to a complex problem and the bedrock on which the problem will eventually be solved - not 100%; maybe not even 80 or 90 percent. But, a 50 - 75% improvement over the next 10 years would be a God send.

The journey starts somewhere. Slaughter and transport for slaughter is the snake's head.