Operation Tampa Bay

ARM’s investigations of six illegal animal slaughter farms and ‘underground’ horse killers in the Hillsborough County of Tampa Bay, Florida, has concluded the initial phase.

These farms are some of the worst of their kind in Florida that ARM has investigated. They have been practicing brutal acts of animal torture and abuse in butchering and selling the animals for human consumption. Upon these farms, the black market horse meat trade is also a thriving business. ARM documented many broken down, unwanted and injured racehorses and wild mustangs as being consistently bought into these farms.


ARM discovered several law violations, including child welfare, environmental, building & zoning, and food safety, to list a few.


Due to an unexpected resistance with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department and the State Attorney’s office taking action with ARM’s concrete evidence, ARM has joined forces with the respected Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF). In a joint effort, ARM and the ALDF has now served each of the targeted animal killers and suing them for extreme acts of animal cruelty.


Action at this time includes Jorge Ortega, one of the most violent horse killers, who, on November 6, 2012, was arrested for killing and selling horse meat to an undercover ARM investigator and USDA agent. This arrest is the first of it’s kind in the USA under The Good Horse Slaughter Act of 2010 that ARM aided in its legislature.