Equine Cruelty- Which is Worse?

I know I won't make any friends by what I am going to write about, and many of you may choose not to read my site anymore.  But I think the topic needs to be discussed.  In 2007, the last horse slaughterhouses in this country were shut down by state law.  With the rising cost of hay, grain, transport, etc., many horse-owners are struggling to take proper care of their animals.  However, without domestic horse slaughterhouses, many are choosing to abandon their horses, like this one above or pay somebody to transport the horse to Mexican slaughterhouses that are still open.  A recently introduced resolution (H.R. 6598) will ban export of horses to other countries for slaughter.  Will these tighter restrictions only lead to more black market sales of horses to Mexico and more abandonment, thereby creating MORE cruelty to horses?  The other options to deal with older or disabled horses is to euthanize them, incinerate them, or bury them.  However, with a worldwide food crisis (one that is politically manufactured however), why would we want to waste this food source that many choose to eat?  Just because some people see horses as pets, does that mean that horse meat consumption should be banned?  What if all the pet-owners of pigs decided to make pork production illegal in this country because they think pigs are sweet and intelligent?  I only ask that you put aside your notions of pets versus livestock and think about which is worse- horses killed at slaughterhouses (usually with a stun gun to the head, just like how most cows and pigs are killed) or horses wasting away in cramped, poop-filled paddocks with minimal feed and water because their owner can no longer afford them?