Killing registered, tattooed thoroughbred racehorses for human consumption.
In September of 2022, ARM investigators pursued a lead after discovering a post on Craigslist advertising ‘live animals and meat for sale’ at an illegal animal slaughter farm located in Brooksville, Florida.
The property and place of business are owned and operated by Juan Ortiz, a Cuban man in his 60’s, and his son, who is in his 30’s.
During this investigation, Ortiz confessed to ARM operatives that he had been butchering cows, horses, sheep, goats, and poultry at this location for over four years.
He also disclosed to servicing individual customers, supplying to small markets, butcher shops, restaurants, catering events, trading live animals for meat, and religious sacrifice. They are also selling to USDA animal slaughterhouses that ARM has previously investigated.
While undercover, ARM witnessed and documented some of the most inhumane, illegal, and violent crimes executed upon animals, including pigs being struck repeatedly over the head with 2 x 4 wooden slabs, being asphyxiated by ropes, and stabbed repeatedly in the chest / heart and hammered to death.
As grim as these findings revealed, the most prominent component of this case, titled Operation Barker, lies around ARM obtaining the entire process of horses being killed for their meat for human consumption. This has never been documented by an animal advocacy organization or any law enforcement agency.
ARM’s findings revealed that Ortiz and his backyard business is heavily connected to the black-market horse meat industry that has been running rampant throughout the State of Florida for decades, now reaching the status of organized crime for stealing, procuring, transporting, receiving, killing, and selling horse meat across county, and even state lines.
Furthermore, this investigation unveiled the butchering of not just any horse but a registered, tattooed thoroughbred racehorse known as Funny Biz -an 8-year-old mare whose lineage traces back to the infamous Secretariat. This type of crime escalates slaughtering horses from a third-degree felony under The Good Horse Slaughter ACT to a second-degree felony conviction and a penalty of up to 15 years imprisonment for killing an identified thoroughbred.
Ortiz’s animal slaughter farm is not only guilty of brutally torturing and killing animals for a profit on a large scale, but he has also been operating without any licenses, registrations, or regulations by an agency, imposing a grave risk to the health and safety of customers and consumers for preparing and selling unsanitary meat. This location is mere miles from the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office.
To learn more about Operation Barker, click here to READ THE FULL REPORT.
A sample of significant crimes witnessed by ARM investigators include:
- Animals are not stunned by appropriate devices, rendered unconscious, or deemed insensible to pain prior to the slaughter process, per the Humane Slaughter Act.
- Animals are bludgeoned with wooden boards and hammers to the head and asphyxiated with ropes.
- Animals are inhumanely handled, dragged, and butchered in front of other animals.
- Goats, sheep, and pigs are stabbed repeatedly in the throat and chest with foot-long blades while screaming and thrusting, displaying clear signs of life.
- Animals are butchered in unsanitary, illegal, open-air butcher areas, allowing the meat to be exposed to flies and insects.
- Sale of unadulterated, un-inspected meat.
- Animal carcasses are illegally disposed of in piles and shallow graves strewn across the property.
- Blood from slaughtered animals, excessive animal excrement, and dead bodies are threatening public health and safety. Body fluids from animals are pooling into the ground, potentially contaminating public groundwater.
- Animals are butchered on the ground on top of decaying animal carcasses.
- Dogs are encouraged to attack animals as they are dragged to butcher areas.
- Zoning and building codes are grossly violated. No government oversight or licensing.
- Guilty of illegally trading wildlife on a statewide level for ritualistic and meat purposes.
During Operation Barker, ARM witnessed and documented multiple felony acts of animal cruelty resulting in death and countless misdemeanor crimes that were executed by Juan ‘George’ Ortiz, his son Carlos Jnr, and several employees of Ortiz.
ARM presented this case to the Hernando Sherriff’s office as well as multiple state agencies, including FDLE and the USDA.
At the time of the release of Operation Barker, no arrests have been made.
Please continue to monitor this page for breaking updates, arrests, and hopeful animal rescue missions conducted by ARM Sanctuary.
Follow a manual added link
Undercover Footage
Follow a manual added link
