Richard ‘Kudo’ Couto is the Founder, Chief Executive Director and Lead Investigator of The Animal Recovery Mission (ARM). Before ARM’s inception in 2010, Kudo was a board member and investigator for the local SPCA.

Born in 2005, at the prestigious Claiborne Farms of the Blue grass region of Kentucky, Freedoms Flight was destined to fill the shoes of his famous great, great grandfather and America’s legendary racehorse, Secretariat.

Aussie, like the many animals that wound up on an illegal animal slaughter farm in AREA 97 of Hialeah, Fl, was destined for a torturous death until ARM stepped up in November of 2011.

Epic’s life began as a wild mustang in Warm Springs, Oregon until she was forced into a life of suffering as she was rounded up by The Department of the Interior’s BLM in 2001. Epic was confined to a holding pen with little shade, water or food.