Earlier this year, Maine Friends of Animals submitted legislation to end the transportation of horses from and through Maine to slaughterhouses in Quebec. Horse slaughter is not allowed in the US. Unfortunately, the bill had to be tabled after heavy lobbying by the Maine Harness Horsemen's Association, the Farm Bureau and State House Republican leadership.

In our research on the growing number of unwanted horses in Maine and those being sent to slaughter in Canada, we discovered, aided by some harness racing insiders, some well-kept secret realities about the lives of harness-racing horses in Maine. Few of them spend bucolic lives frolicking in the fields, as the harness racing industry would have you believe.

There is no other animal that inspires more romantic metaphors than the horse. We admire its power and grace with its rare combination of beauty, strength and freedom.

Nature smiled and opened a generous hand when she gave man the horse. For millenniums the horse has changed mankind -- the ways we travel, trade, play, work and fight wars have all been profoundly shaped by our relationship with horses.

As always when you address an issue as controversial as horse slaughter for human consumption it draws out opposition, most particularly those with a financial interest in keeping things as they are.

Many, including legislators, did not know that horses were sent to and through Maine for slaughter in Quebec, Canada. That increased awareness drew considerable support for L.D. 1075 "An Act to Prohibit the Slaughter of Horses for Human Consumption."

We initially thought we had reached a compromise with the opposition, but they then decided to oppose the bill. The harness racing industry, Farm Bureau, the Governor's office and those not completely informed or misinformed have made the passage of L.D. 1075 significantly more difficult. We simply do not have the resources they do to work the bill.