mr. chairman , i thank my friends , the gentleman from new york ( mr. sweeney )  ; the gentleman from south carolina ( mr. spratt )  ; and the gentleman from kentucky ( mr. whitfield )  .  what has become of us as a country , selling these horses off for horse meat to be eaten on the other side of our oceans ?  the wild horse is an icon of american history .  the gentleman from iowa asked what is the difference between a horse and a steer and a hog ?  the horse is an icon along with the bald eagle .  what is the difference between a bald eagle and a pigeon or a turkey ?  and if you do not know the difference , we can not explain it to you .  shakespeare once said that `` horses are as full of spirit as the month of may and as gorgeous as the sun in midsummer '' .  does everything have to be converted to the bottom line ?  there are so many alternatives to slaughtering these beautiful creatures that are on public lands .  we used to have 1 million at the turn of the century .  we are down to 35 , 000 wild horses on public lands .  that is sad and wrong .  we have responsibility over these beautiful creatures .  they ought not be cut up in such an inhumane way , and shipped overseas for people who want to eat horse meat .  that is not what we are about as a country .  there are so many other alternatives .  we can use animal contraception methods .  we could reopen over 100 herd management areas that the bureau of land management has closed .  we could start centers such as the one i saw this weekend , 61 horses brought from the wild west for adoption .  they came from nevada and wyoming and california , beautiful creatures .  people in the east coast are adopting them .  there are so many things we could be doing rather than selling these beautiful creatures for horse meat .  we are not just about dollars and cents .  we are about the things that made our country great .  the wild horse is one of those things .  it inspires poetry ; and if my colleagues do not understand that , i guess we ca n't very well communicate why this is so important to us .  but i trust the majority of this congress knows what we are talking about .  