A show horse slaughtered over the weekend at a Florida equestrian center was apparently butchered for its meat.
Police believe the horse was killed between Saturday evening and Sunday morning at the Imperial Farms Equestrian Center in Palmetto, said the
Bradenton Herald. The horse was led to a back pen, then killed and butchered.
The 12-year-old horse named Phedras de Blondel was purchased from an owner in Germany by prominent equestrians Debbie Stephens and her husband Steve Stephens, who have owned the 27-acre farm since the early 1960s. The powerful jumping horse weighed 1,300 pounds.
Dave Bristow, of the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, said detectives think the suspect wanted horse meat and didn't target the horse specifically.
"We don't think they wanted this particular horse other than for its size," said Bristow. "We are hoping someone saw something unusual, an unusual car or truck in the area. The farm is not that far from the highway."
"We have never had a case like this that I can remember. It's grisly. There has been a case in the Palm Beach County area involving a slaughterhouse, but nothing like that here."
Steve Stephens told
WTSP-TV that he just recently brought the horse to the U.S..
"Horrible...unbelievable," said Steve Stephens, adding that his wife first noticed the horse missing on Sunday. "Just dismembered him right there and just left his rib cage and his neck and head. All four legs were cut off of him. I don't mean at the knee, I mean from his shoulder."
Bristow said the butchers could be charged with burglary and animal cruelty, along with other possible charges.
"It's a horrible crime scene and obviously for the owner to have to go through this is just absolutely terrible," said Bristow.
Debbie Stephens holds the all-time women's high jump record for show horses. Steve Stephens co-designed equestrian courses for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in China, said the Herald.
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