Second arrest in Florida horse killings

A second suspect has been arrested for his part in two of the Florida horse killings.

Nineteen year old Santiago Cabrera, of Hialeah, faces charges ofarmed burglary, animal cruelty, killing a registered breed horse and breaking a fence.

According to a report on justnews.com, Cabera has admitted that he, Luis Miguel Cordero and two others went to the Lazy L Ranch to kill a horse for its meat. According to police, Cabrera said he cut a fence to get onto the property and he and the others pulled a horse from its stall and held it while one of them slit its throat. Cabrera was paid $500 for his participation.

Cabrera also faces charges in connection with the death of a nursing mare at
the Stone City Ranch on July 9th, along with three others. Cabrera was paid $900 for his role in that killing.

Given that he was only one of several people involved, it's hard to understand who is buying
the meat and for what purpose. Authorities report that horse meat sold on the black market brings $40 - $60 per pound . . .  from an economic perspective, that just doesn't make sense. Who is going to pay that much for meat, especially when it appears that it's been ineptly butchered. And why sneak onto private property to slaughter horses when you can find people giving them away? Just log onto Craig's list to see how desperate people are to place their horses.

While I don't care to report all the details of the crimes here, the way the horses have been killed has been quite cruel, almost suggesting that there is something more evil going on -- maybe a gang initiation?  We can only
hope that this level of violence is not a precursor of something even more terrible.

I hope that this arrest, like the one earlier this week, leads to the identification of more suspects.

Anyone with information is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS (8477).