By "exploitation", I am referring to the use of animals as a monetary resource with little or no consideration for their well being. 

Horses end up in slaughter in a variety of ways, all unlucky. Sometimes they are sent to slaughter by individuals or groups no longer able or willing to care for them. Sometimes they are retired or injured race horses, riding school or show horses, federally protected wild horses, foals born as a by-product of the Premarin  ^{industry, or stolen horses. Auction houses provide an easy out for irresponsible equine owners to discard an animal they no longer want while getting some cash in return. Those purchased at auctions by individuals known as "killer buyers" are then shipped on double-deck trailers for as long as several days without adequate water, food, or rest only to arrive at the slaughterhouse where workers abuse them right up to the actual slaughter. According to the US Department of Agriculture, 42,312 horses were slaughtered in 2002.  In addition to the horses killed in the two US-based plants, thousands more are transported under deplorable conditions across our borders into Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered. Horses are often transported for more than 24 hours without rest, water, or food, while unprotected from weather extremes in thin metal-walled trailers. Sick and/or injured horses frequently are forced onto double-deck trailers that were designed for short-necked animals including cattle and sheep.
Once at the slaughterhouse, the suffering and abuse continue unabated. Often, horses are left on tightly packed double-deck trailers for long periods of time while a few are forcibly moved off. Callous workers, using long, thick fiberglass rods, poke and beat the horses' faces, necks, backs, and legs as they are shoved through the facility into the kill box. Due to extreme overcrowding, abuse, deafening sounds, and the smell of blood, the horses exhibit fear typical of "flight" behavior – pacing in prance-like movements with their ears pinned back against their heads and eyes wide open.
While Federal law requires that horses be rendered unconscious prior to having their throats slit, recent documentation shows that repeated blows with captive bolt pistols are often necessary, causing excruciating suffering. Horses writhe in the holding stall (known as the "kill box"), legs buckling under their weight after each traumatic, misguided and ineffective blows to their heads. Death is not swift for these terrified and noble animals. You have to see the unmistakable look of confusion and fright of horses stockpiled in killer pens: young foals still nursing at their mother's side, race horses too slow or with legs shattered, mares heavy with foal, navicular quarterhorses, foundered ponies, ringboned jumpers, mustangs, people's pets beautifully groomed, these animals were all given names, and trusted man. The horse will give everything, the least we can give the horse is the guarantee of a humane death}

In the United States and Mexico dog racing has become extremely popular. The fastest runner among the canines is the Greyhound breed. Millions of dollars are wagered on Greyhound races every single year. Greyhound racing is the sixth most attended sporting event in the USA. The Greyhound Racing Industry has tried hard over the years to convince the public that dogs no longer deemed useful to their owners are found caring homes and thus live out their remaining years in adopted bliss. This is a flat-out lie! The Humane Society estimates up to 50,000 dogs are put down annually because they can no longer compete on America's dogtracks. Only a small percentage are euthanized by veterinarians. The rest are shot and dumped in landfills, abandoned along the highways, left in their cages to starve, blugeoned or hanged. And because greyhounds are known to endure overwhelming abuse without any lasting effect on their personalities, some are sold illegally for research, including bone-breaking experiments. In most cases, the dogs' ears are sliced off to prevent identification. researchers love Greyhounds because they're calm, they're tractable, they don't bark, and they have a high level of pain tolerance. They have no hair, no fat. They have a universal blood type, a large heart, and a magnificent skeletal system.

Seal hunters called "beaters"—kill seal pups who are at least two weeks old. And once a baby seal starts to molt even a part of its white coat, the Canadian government allows hunters to beat the pups to death with a club or a large ice-pick-like hakapik. There have even been reports of sealers killing mothers who try to protect their unweaned pups. Under the government's latest plan, hunters will be allowed to kill 975,000 harp seals on their home ice east of Newfoundland and Labrador during a three-year period. We don't know how many more seals were killed than were reported, but we do know that in the 2001-2002 hunt, sealers killed at least 30,000 more seals than allowed by law. And how did the Canadian government punish the sealers? By upping the quota. The Canadian givernment has proven that is is more interested in promoting a commercial seal hunt than the humane treatment of seals. Evidence showed that nearly 40% of seal pups were being skinned while still alive and conscious.

Take a good look at this picture. This is not clever photo editing, this is someone killing animals in the name of 'art'. Nathalia Edenmont is an artist who uses dead animals in her works. She kills these cats, rabbits and mice herself, 15 minutes before taking the photographs . Nathalia grew up in the former Soviet Union, and claims that she killed and decapitated the animals herself, and there is no evidence to suggest otherwise. The Wetterling Gallery has encouraged Edenmont to use larger animals in the future. There is a clear history of mental instability in the arts. Van Gough cut off his own ear, and Dali threw cats into a swimming pool, but the art world should not encourage destructive behavior. It is time for galleries, art critics and art publications to accept responsibility for the actions of artists and to refuse to celebrate abuse, cruelty and killing as art.