Who’s killing horses in Central
Florida? A mystery terrifies owners.
Tampa Bay Times [St. Petersburg],
by
Jack Evans
Original Article
Posted By: Hazymac,
2/9/2020 9:11:08 AM
ZEPHYRHILLS — The Rottweilers’ barking woke Brena Kramer in the darkest part of the January morning, but it was when they fell silent that she got worried. They were chasing something.
She stepped onto the big screened porch and looked toward the barn. A security lamp gave off the only light. Across the yard, she heard an unusual sound — one of the horses shuffling anxiously in his stall.
Five years earlier, Kramer had turned this property, set back off a railroad access drive, into her dream: a horse rehabilitation center. She took horses nobody else would, ones that needed up to a year of treatment. It was nonstop work,
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Jebediah 2/9/2020 9:19:37 AM (No. 312830)
It truly is upsetting in that it looks like the Law may be complicit in some of these cases, bought off? A truly horrendous article.
11 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
bassman 2/9/2020 9:24:50 AM (No. 312839)
Who's killing them? Illegals!!
20 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Zumkopf 2/9/2020 9:39:52 AM (No. 312870)
For all the (justified) pathos in the article, I note a rather curious lack of investigation or even speculation as to who is fueling the increase in demand for horse meat. I suppose it would be politically incorrect to travel down that path.
26 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Zumkopf 2/9/2020 9:48:08 AM (No. 312886)
The article's surprise surprises me. The crime is hardly unknown in South Florida, and the consumers are equally well identified. To coin a phrase, eating horse meat is more American than the Americans who have outlawed it. The main reasons the crime is moving north is that the population of consumers has been increasing and the South Florida horse farms have hardened up a bit.
6 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
HotRod 2/9/2020 9:57:47 AM (No. 312896)
Many pet dogs are being stolen too. Keep an eye on you pets when they are outdoors! Many illegal immigrants consider it normal to eat horse meat and dog meat. Many of the illegals are financially strapped, living under the radar, and unable to survive on under-the-table pay. This is another reason to stop the influx of poor illegal immigrants!
18 people like this.
"Couto estimated there are upward of 500 illegal horse slaughter operations in Florida. He said the demand for black-market meat can push prices to $40 per pound."
I doubt that they are bothering to ship this meat over seas, so unless the dog food companies are buying it, we could be unknowingly eating it!
If there are 500 slaughter locations, it should be pretty simple to find one, scout out who is driving up to it in vans, and make a big showy arrest that would scare the rest of them.
12 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
HPmatt 2/9/2020 10:04:13 AM (No. 312905)
No one in Florida has video cameras? We’ve had in Dallas for 20 years, can buy them at Best Buy 4 for $400. They are UV too so record at night.
11 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Zumkopf 2/9/2020 10:57:05 AM (No. 312944)
#6, I sincerely doubt there are even 50 such operations in Florida, let alone 500. If an "operation" slaughtered only one horse a week, that would mean 26,000 horses disappearing per year in Florida alone. Three caused the panic in central Florida. I would like to see horse slaughters at zero and horse killers prosecuted vigorously, but insanely hyping the problem is not a solution.
Moreover, if the demand for horsemeat were really that high, there'd be a huge push to legalize the practice, not hysteria aimed at eradicating it, and no pretense or mystery about who the slaughterers are. Given the unwillingness of the authorities to squarely face the origin of the problem or its perpetrators, I think they are simply hoping the problem, or at least public interest in it, just fades away.
6 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
DVC 2/9/2020 11:00:08 AM (No. 312948)
Another one of the "many benefits" of having illegal aliens from Mexico and south breaking into our country and doing crimes all over the place. My family, and friends have had horses in Central Fla, but long ago. Messing with out horse could get you seriously hurt or worse.
I'd would be good if a few of these folks turned up dead themselves rather than the horses.
8 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Blue-Z-Anna 2/9/2020 11:18:05 AM (No. 312980)
It's the French !
4 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
mc squared 2/9/2020 11:28:40 AM (No. 312995)
Posters here have figured out why there's a market for horse meat, so why haven't the county Barney Fifes done so too?
Here's a big clue: '.. horse meat has roles in cuisines across the world, and Couto said he’s learned that many in Florida want it because they believe it has medicinal qualities...' Maybe they're respecting cultural diversity.
5 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 2/9/2020 11:32:37 AM (No. 313002)
Strike me this might be the work of more than one person. In Kramer's case, it looks like the intention was to kill the horse at the farm. All the others, the horse had been stolen first, and the remains found elsewhere.
Do the people of Central and South America eat horses? Hope the police are working on this, but keeping a low profile. Think there are transient camps in Florida. Betting this is the work of one or more transients.
6 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
MeiDei 2/9/2020 12:02:22 PM (No. 313029)
Are there any old horse thief laws still on the books? I thought it was always OK to shoot a horse thief.
9 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
DVC 2/9/2020 1:18:15 PM (No. 313097)
313, lynching was the standard treatment for horse thieves in Kansas back in the 1870s and 1880s, not sure that this would be a good idea to do today.
5 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Strike3 2/9/2020 6:20:57 PM (No. 313309)
I'm guessing some flavor of third worlders, who tend to be more cruel to animals. The only other place I've seen this happening is in Puerto Rico where they would cut through the fence into a small Navy base and raid their riding stables. I also saw a guy whipping a horse trying to get it untangled from a barbed wire fence. You don't see much of that in the civilized world.
1 person likes this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
joew9 2/9/2020 6:21:51 PM (No. 313311)
Lynching for horse thieves was common because if you took someones horse that could leave them without transportation and other very necessary uses. Plus the horse was pretty much the most expensive thing the person owned. Take someones horse and you might have just doomed that person to die. The usefulness of horses has been greatly reduced today so lynching is no longer an appropriate punishment. On the other hand, stealing someones car...
Horse meat is considered a delicacy in many countries, especially in Europe. Mexico legally slaughters and exports thousands of carcass each year. Why would it be a delicacy? Is it delicious? So perhaps the horses are being slaughtered because the're real tasty and some American residents wish to partake. I just don't know.
I've heard that manatee meat is very good. They're eaten all over the world. But in Florida they insist that manatees must be treated like gods. I've been yelled at by fanatic neighbors when manatees come up to my dock that I shouldn't even pet them. I never have but they sure seem to be begging for a scratch. Manatees are currently having a fad of getting tattoos that look just like a dotted line caused by a motor boat prop. Nope, it's just the most popular tattoo that teenage manatees get at the manatee tattoo parlor. One of them came up to my dock proudly showing off his newest mermaid tattoo. They're so vain.
1 person likes this.
Very odd that law enforcement hasn't a clue. Tens of thousands of horses in San Diego County (where there are also thousands of permanent Latino tourists struggling to make ends meet). If such an incident were to happen here, it might happen a second time but that would be the end of it.
3 people like this.
No boundaries. Whatever people want, they take. People should have the same right to shoot people who steal their animals as Stand Your Ground.
0 people like this.
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Different cultures are likely to blame.