"It used to be I could take a horse that is unbreedable, untrainable, injured or unwanted and sell it for anywhere between $200 to $700," says Sheila Harmon, who has bred Arabian horses in Eagle, Idaho, for 28 years. "Now I have to pay a euthanasia fee to a veterinarian and a disposal fee to have the animal taken away."

A ban on selling animals to a meat processor will "drive another nail in the coffin" of her business, Harmon says.

Animal activists and some horse lovers say that's regrettable but that the issue is a moral one, not economic. Horses are pets, not an entree, says Julie Caramante of Habitat for Horses, a large horse rescue operation south of Houston.

"There is a global market for dog meat, (but) we wouldn't even dream of selling our pets for that," Caramante says.

For decades, horse farms sold unwanted animals to slaughterhouses that shipped the meat overseas to places such as France and Japan, where horse meat is an accepted meal, even a delicacy. In 2006, close to 140,000 horses were sold this way, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

But last year, under pressure from animal activists, courts in Texas and lawmakers in Illinois made butchering horses for human consumption illegal. That forced the shutdown of the last three horse slaughterhouses in those states - and the USA.

Although it remains legal to ship horses to Mexico or Canada for slaughter (in 2007, about 80,000 animals followed this route), there is a move in Congress to close that off as well. Breeders and ranchers say such a move would destroy an important export market they need to stay afloat.

"They've done away with the ability to get rid of inventory that has no other good place to go," Harmon says.

'Kicked to the side'

Owners spend between $125 and $600 for euthanasia and burial or to pay someone to haul away a carcass for animal-feed ingredients or the chemical industry. That can add up for breeders who supply hundreds of thousands of horses every year to the race industry, ranches and the riding crowd.

Paxton Ramsey's family has raised cattle for more than a century in east Texas and breeds quarter horses primarily for ranch hands. Ramsey, who represents the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, says the shutdown of slaughterhouses has led to stray horses showing up in higher numbers on public land and private property. If the USA has to care for tens of thousands of unwanted horses a year, he says, it won't be long before the public will be forced to foot the bill for a half-million horse herd at $2,400 a horse per year.

"There are other things that can be done with government land other than maintain unwanted horses," he says.

Neglected animals are showing up across the country. While some shelters say they have room for more horses, shelters in Virginia, Tennessee and Illinois say they are full.

"I've seen a tremendous increase in the number of people pleading with us to take their horses and we absolutely cannot," says Donna Ewing, founder of Hooved Animal Rescue and Protection Society in Barrington Hills, Ill.

At Roanoke Valley Horse Rescue in southwestern Virginia, Pat Muncy rubs the neck of a brown thoroughbred named Prince that was among 21 horses she has received since September. The yearling's protruding ribs still show the effects of starvation two months after Loudoun County officers seized the horse along with 46 others from a Virginia farm.

Some of the seized horses are thought to be descendants of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew that "got kicked to the side," she says.

Activists say that no matter the situation it's wrong to kill horses for meat and that industry predictions are exaggerated.

"We are Americans and we oppose horse slaughter," said Paula Bacon, former mayor of Kaufman, Texas, who fought to close a slaughterhouse there.

Bacon says breeders produce too many horses and don't try to improve them before sale.

Tom Lenz, chairman of the Unwanted Horse Coalition, a horse breeders group, says Bacon's assertion makes no sense.

"It costs anything between $1,900 to $2,400 to feed a horse for a year," Lenz says. "Why would you put all that effort into a horse and sell it for $300 (for slaughter)?"

Slaughter vs. risk of neglect

Chris Heyde, deputy legislative director with the Animal Welfare Institute, says the country can handle more horses. Heyde helped write the legislation that would ban the sale of U.S. horses to slaughterhouses. The bill is still being hashed out in committees.

"You can find a home for these horses," Heyde says. "Most people do."

Stephen "Doc" Vangyija, founder of the Equine Rescue & Protection Humane Society, does not support horse slaughter but worries there will be more neglected horses if the bill passes. Slaughter that is supervised and humane is better than allowing horses to starve, he says.

Many Americans seem indifferent to the issue, according to a USA TODAY poll. Asked if U.S. ranchers should be allowed to sell horse meat to food distributors overseas, 45% of Americans had no opinion, 30% said no, and 25% said yes.

"People in the horse business think that people should be able to do what their conscience guides them," says Mike Jennings, co-owner of Professional Auction Services in Berryville, Va.