Suspected Horse Slaughter Investigated In NW Dade - cbs4.com.flv

May 26, 2010 6:00 pm US/Eastern Suspected Horse Slaughter Investigated In NW Dade
NW MIAMI-DADE (CBS4)
A slaughtered horse was discovered at NW 131st Avenue and 182nd Street in Northwest Miami-Dade on Wednesday, May 26, 2010.
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numSlides of totalImages Related Slideshows BP Struggles To Halt Gulf Coast Oil Spill 2010 Celebrity Deaths Signs of Fail Scenes From Preakness Stakes At Pimlico Race Course For the second time in as many months, a police are investigating a possible horse slaughter in South Florida. Investigators were out at the scene Wednesday at NW 131st Avenue and 182nd Street after a suspicious car was spotted outside a Miami-Dade horse ranch.

"When the homeowner made the report, there was nobody driving the vehicle," Det. Edna Hernandez of the Miami-Dade Police Department said. "It was an abandoned vehicle that was found, and it had what appeared to be smeared blood on the outside of it."

Inside the car, there were coolers filled with meat. Police haven't said for sure if the meat is horse meat. They found it suspicious enough to send to a lab for testing. Even though police say they haven't found a carcass, Jeanette Jordan, President of South Florida SPCA Horse Rescue confirmed this was a horse slaughter.

"A lot of people think horse meat cures blood disorders; that it helps with side effects for chemotherapy," Richard Couto, founder of the Animal Recovery Mission said. "Actually, it's the reverse. It causes cancer, it causes birth defects in women, it's toxic."

Neighbors told police they weren't missing any horses and as of Wednesday evening, no one knows where today's slaughtered horse came from.

Wednesday's discovery is just the latest in a series of horse killings across South Florida. In 2009, nearly two dozen horses were slaughtered and several arrests were made. Miami-Dade police officials say even though it's illegal to buy or sell horse meat in the U.S., there's still a demand for horse meat in the black market.

The Florida legislature even got involved this year and passed the Florida Horse Protection Bill. The bill, which was signed into law by Governor Crist on May 14th and becomes effective July 1st, increases penalties from misdemeanor to felony, including minimum sentencing of one year in prison with a $3,500 fine.

The new law bans people from transporting, buying, owning or giving out horse meat for human consumption, unless the meat is clearly marked and stamped for that purpose. It is illegal to sell horse meat without that stamp.

http://cbs4.com/local/Horse.horses.slaughtered.2.1716295.html

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• HORSE
• SLAUGHTERED

[sorcha24]

@willem01 it does if the horse is fed drugs like phenylbutazone

[rebeccaeve30120]

It does cause cancer because of the chemicals we put on horses. I own two..I know. So don't talk if you don't know what you are talking about.

[victorialovera]

@willem01 he is an investigator that has been working for 12 years. I mean, he should know. What knowledge do you have? Where is your proof? If you look at other slaughter videos you can see the how cruel men are when they kill them in contrast with the cow industry where they use slighly more humane techniques.