[liberalh8ter]

You're approaching this from the angle of unwanted horses being slaughtered as a humane act and the meat is then rendered for use. Instead, look at this as an introduction of horse meat to the American diet and then consider that horses will be bred and raised TO be slaughtered for the meat. As the market for horse meat increases, the market will reward the breeders whose animals are the tastiest. As with cows, the cross breeding that produces a well marbled meat will become the standard.

In the beef industry, the cows are pastured to a certain age at which time they go to market - usually at about the 8 month to 1 year mark. The cows are then sent to the feed lot where they are grain fed for a period of time so as to fatten them up. They are held in small areas and the weight is put on them slowly, so as not to create a fatty meat but more to encourage the marbling that is inherent in their cross breed.

As Americans become more comfortable with eating horses, the same can be expected.

[Mr Rogers]

Horses will never be raised for slaughter. They are too expensive and fragile compared to cattle, and aren’t bred to gain maximum weight for the least food.