For some Almaden Valley horse owners, the thought of horses becoming food for human consumption is lamentable, and, understanding the manner in which they are brought to slaughter, is deplorable.

"Laws need to be passed so that it's done humanely," said Almaden's Jennifer Kurtzhall, a horse owner. "I'm not against people eating horsemeat. I would never do it, but horses are your pets. Cows aren't pets. Pigs aren't."

But to some horse owners, their emotional attachment to the animals runs much deeper than that. "These are your family, not your pets," argued 15-year-old Lauren Martin.

Still, some of the horse owners in Almaden say that while eating horsemeat is unappealing to them, they accept that other cultures partake and enjoy it. They also agree that as long as a horse's life is humanely ended at a natural time, that medical-research usage or procurement of tallow is acceptable.

Becky Hart, manager at Lightfoot Stables on McKean Road, recalled a visit she made to Spain when she stayed with someone who bred horses like cattle.

"They were fat. They had a fantastic life," she said. "They were not suffering at all, and they certainly got plenty to eat."

California voters passed a law (Proposition 6) in 1998 prohibiting the slaughter of horses and the sale of horsemeat for human consumption. But the law hasn't prevented California horses—young, old, sick and healthy—from being moved out of the state by their owners for sale to slaughterhouses. Some horses are auctioned off to middlemen, who turn around and sell them to slaughterhouses. Other times, horses are simply stolen and sold.

Regardless of the route the horse takes to the slaughterhouse, many say they believe the horses are treated and killed inhumanely. Often the horses are transported in cattle trucks for more than 24 hours that aren't built to accommodate the height of a horse, forcing the animal to bend at the neck for hours at a time, being deprived of food, water or rest.

"Horses don't like it," Kurtzhall said. "They bite, kick and fight each other."

The meat is then sold and shipped to markets in Europe and parts of Asia.

According to the Doris Day Animal League, a nonprofit lobbying organization that focuses on promoting the humane treatment of animals, more than 185 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, support a federal bill, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (HR 857). The bill, which has passed the House and was recently introduced in the U.S. Senate, would prevent both the product and the profit from going overseas, to where horsemeat is used for human consumption, and would ensure a humane end to a horse's life.

"Americans don't eat horses, and we sure don't raise our horses for human consumption," said Liz Clancy Ross, director of special projects for the Doris Day Animal League.

The human companions of Luna, Ronnie, Princess, Tiger and Coco—horses stabled at Lightfoot—say they can't imagine why anyone would want to eat horsemeat.

"I would never send her anywhere, for dog food or anything," said Christy Schroeder, an 11-year-old who attends Bret Harte Middle School, of her equine pal, Princess.

Ross said that the practice of using horsemeat for dog food ended in the United States many years ago and the legislation her organization is supporting would still allow for medical research.

Judith Ogus, a local horse owner and trainer, said she had mixed feelings about the issue of eating horsemeat but believes there is some logic to using an animal for sustenance if it is killed in a humane way.

"The problem is that people steal horses to sell them for slaughter," she said.

Though the number of horse thefts has not gone up since the passage of Proposition 6 in 1998, according to Ross, Kurtzhall said that it is common knowledge that when a horse goes missing from a stable, it is assumed the horse has been stolen to be auctioned off to a slaughterhouse in Texas. To the thief, it is a quick buck. To a horse lover, it is devastating.

"Horses are only worth what you know about them," Kurtzhall said.

And sometimes that isn't even the case. Heather Reynolds has purchased three horses for $400 apiece, "literally off the slaughter truck," she says.

Two of those horses have turned out to be gold medal winners for her in endurance rides and competitions. One of those horses, called Master Motion, helped her earn a first-place finish in 2003 in the internationally renowned Tevis Cup event, in which she rode 100 miles in one day, and then won a veterinarians' judging the next day.

"That's the first horse in 49 years to do that. These horses have competed internationally. They're gold medalists and they've been on airplanes. These horses are incredible, but they were just junk to someone else," Reynolds said.

The "someone else," she said, was a guy who sold them to auction because he couldn't sell them elsewhere and needed to make up his profits.

Trilby Pedersen, Almaden resident and stable owner, shudders at the thought of any horse turning into someone else's meal and says she knows of only one horse owner who has sold his horses at the end of their lives.

Kurtzhall and Pedersen said that in the case of one of that owner's horses, which was lame, he had no other choice, and neither of the women thinks poorly of him, but the man said he didn't know the final destination of his horses after he sold them.

"It's not something I would do, but I don't hold it against him," Kurtzhall said.

There are other options for owners whose horses have come to the end of their lives, and Ross said there are rescue organizations that will take the horses to use for companion or training animals.

"There are numerous rescue organizations," she said. "There are places that exist that can absorb these horses."

Pedersen, who has three of her horses buried on her property, said she views ownership of a horse as something personal, and as an endurance rider, an animal with which a relationship is built over time.

"When you have a horse, it's like when you have a dog, you make a commitment," she said.

For more information about the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (HR 857), contact the Doris Day Animal League at 202.546.1761 or visit the website at www.ddal.org.