Kentucky, the horse capital of the world, famous for its sleek thoroughbreds, is being overrun with thousands of horses no one wants – some of them perfectly healthy, but many of them are starving and broken-down. Other parts of the country are overwhelmed, too.

The reason: growing opposition in the U.S. to the slaughter of horses for human consumption overseas.

With new laws making it difficult to send horses off to the slaughterhouse when they are no longer suitable for racing or work, auction houses are glutted with horses they can barely sell, and rescue organizations have run out of room.

Some owners who cannot get rid of their horses are letting them starve; others are turning them loose in the countryside.

[Read](http://www.hpj.com/archives/2007/mar07/mar26/Kentuckyswampedwithunwanted.cfm “Read the Story”) (AP via the High Plains Journal)