In the spring of 2011, ARM entered into Juarez, Mexico and went deep undercover to document the operations of one of the world’s most inhumane slaughterhouses. The mission involved a week-long sting where ARM documented the layout, daily functions, and necessary details required for further investigations. ARM scheduled to return later in 2012 and 2013 to resume investigations and expose the ruthless methods used to kill the slaughter-bound horses.

This particular mission required extreme caution due to its degree of danger and corruption. The military guarded municipal slaughter plant is seated in the ungoverned hills outside Juarez, Mexico, where drug cartels seek refuge. It is the most polluted area of Juarez and is extremely unsanitary. Because of the absence of legal horse slaughterhouses in the USA, Mexico’s local market is booming.

Kill-buyers purchase horses from the US and transport them to Mexico’s slaughterhouses and the underground horse meat market. Before entering Mexico, the horses are held at the Texas Department of Agriculture holding then cross over the border through El Paso and Socorro, Texas, as well as the Santa Teresa crossing in New Mexico. This slaughter plant is unregulated by the Mexican federal government, and humane standards lack enforcement. Managers of the plant have admitted to the brutality of slaughter methods in the plant.