Over the past several months, residents of southern Florida have been on alert for horse theives who are taking horses from their pastures and butchering them for their meat. The recent theft of five horses from a pasture in Seffner, which took place on Labor Day weekend, has the owners worried that their horses will meet the same fate.
The thieves pulled up a fence post, cut the fence and released two horses of their own to help them corral eight others that were grazing in the pasture. The thieves then drove through the fence, loaded the horses, came back through and re-tied the fence to make it look like the fence was still up.
The incident took place in the 7400 block of Williams Road on September 5, 2009. Two men, one described as tall and slender, the other chunky with a goatee, worked with a heavyset blond woman as they talked with a neighbor who didn’t know they were stealing the horses.
The thieves were able to drive away with five horses, two of which are listed with Stolen Horse International, aka NetPosse.com., in a truck described as a new model maroon Dodge dually. It was pulling a green combo stock trailer which may have a white canvas top.
Sundance, a 1,300-pound palomino gelding and Shilo, a brown Paintaloosa mare with four white stockings were stolen from a family living in Lutz, FL. Shilo, also has white in the front half of her body a blanket with small brown spots on her rear.
An IDAHO Alert has been issued for Sundance and Shilo with a link to a customized webpage and flyer that can be printed at www.netposse.com. NetPosse.com asks people to post the flyer at tack and feed stores, auction barns, restaurants, and convenience stores; in short, anywhere that area people, and potential witnesses, congregate.
Authorities also say a dark brown Shetland pony stallion with a flaxen mane and tail, a blue roan Paint mare with large dark spots and a dark bay mare with an injured hip and a limp were also stolen.
In a note sent to Stolen Horse International, an unconfirmed tip stated that the truck, trailer and horses were seen traveling in the Miami-Dade area.
The remains of 17 horses have been found since January in Miami-Dade County, many slaughtered and abandoned on or near rural roads. In May, two horses were found in a field in Miramar. This week another horse was found butchered in his stall on a ranch in Miami Gardens, Fl. None of the cases in either county has been solved.
Click here for more information on Sundance and Shilo.
Click here for horse theft prevention tips.
I hope the criminals are caught
thank you for this article.
What a horrible story. I feel so sorry for the owners. Please keep us up to date on this.
Please keep us up to date on this, its awful how can people be so heartless! And to go on someones property without the owners permission just boggles m ymind. those poor Horses!
This is horrible. =( It gave me chillbumps! I saw something like this on Animal Cops Miami on Animal Planet but I dont think this is the same story. Either way this is horrible. We are hoping and praying the criminals get caught and this stops soon.
This is horrible. I hope they catch these criminals soon, and my heart goes out to all those horse owners.
That is just awful. I cannot imagine my horse being stolen. I also don’t understand why someone wouldn’t be suspicious about a person driving up in a truck and cutting down a fence. That’s not the normal way to take horses from a field.
Omigosh! That’s horrible! And in Florida? that’s really disturbing.
This is so horrible!!! I hope they find the people that are responsible for all these deaths and theft then punish them to the maximum!!
It angers me! My heart also goes out to the owners of the horses!
Thanks for making this information available. When these people are caught I hope that the judge does more than throw the book at them! This is heartbreaking!