Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Meet Me at Killer Nashville
A reminder that Killer Nashville, the mystery writers and readers conference, will be held Friday, August 14 through Sunday, August 16. On Friday from 2:30-3:30 PM, I'll be discussing "Animals in Mysteries" with my fellow panelists. For all the important details and to register, see http://www.killernashville.com/.
Mindless Atrocities
Ellyn Robinson, Vice President of the South Florida SPCA, wrote to ask me to tell my readers what is happening to horses in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. Pet horses, the official number is now 17, are being hacked to death for their meat. The details of how Geronimo, Bonita, Linda, Comanche and others were butchered are so sickening that I can only think those who are doing it are in the same class of human criminals as Caligula, Herod, Saddam Hussein and Idi Amin Dada. They are amoral, cruel, greedy, and remorseless and they are always with us.
In this case, Ellyn tells us, the horse meat is being sold on the black market. Various estimates of the profits range from $7 to $40 a pound. Richard Couto, investigator with the S.F.S.P.C.A., says "Miami-Dade and South Florida is a melting pot....We have a lot of people, we have a lot of international people, from Asia, Europe, South, Central America and the islands. A lot of these countries, horse meat for consumption is legal. These people grow up eating this meat." (It is legal in Florida for owners to kill and eat their horses on their own property but the meat cannot be sold to others.) Ellyn mentions the irony in the fact that the horse meat is contaminated from antibiotics, de-wormers and other drugs that loving owners pump into their horses to keep them healthy. It's a case of the biter being bit when buyers are willing to purchase this illegal, ill-gotten meat and then get sick and possibly die from eating it. Some think that the killings are a result of the recession, that people need cheap meat. There is even a theory that there is a cultural belief that maintains that horse meat cures diseases.
A note about the wonderful South Florida SPCA and Ellyn Robinson: In one of the killings, a mare was killed but her foal spared. Ellyn and others are trying to get the owner to allow the SPCA to take the foal to its rescue ranch until the foal overcomes the trauma of witnessing his mother's horrible death. Ellyn says he's only about two months old. She has volunteered to pay the expenses for his care.
There is a reward fund being set up so that the police can get more citizen information. If you would like to contribute, please send your checks to:
South Florida SPCA
15476 NW 77th Ct #440
Miami Lakes, FL 33016
The memo line on the check should read: reward fund.
The check should be payable to the South Florida SPCA
Or:
Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers
Attn: Maureen
1030 NW 111 Ave.
Miami, FL 33172
The memo line on the check should read: Dade County Horses
The check should be payable to Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers
For more on this situation, go the the Protecting Horses link on my website at www.http.mmfisher.com.
Here are some helpful links:
www.http.helpthehorses.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/1161684.html
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/search/dispatcher.front?Query=horse+slaughter&target=article&sortby=display_time+descending
http://cbs4.com/local/horse.butchered.burned.2.1104065.html
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/Another-Horse-Cut-and-Killed-For-Meat.html
http://www.justnews.com/video/20203309/index.html
In this case, Ellyn tells us, the horse meat is being sold on the black market. Various estimates of the profits range from $7 to $40 a pound. Richard Couto, investigator with the S.F.S.P.C.A., says "Miami-Dade and South Florida is a melting pot....We have a lot of people, we have a lot of international people, from Asia, Europe, South, Central America and the islands. A lot of these countries, horse meat for consumption is legal. These people grow up eating this meat." (It is legal in Florida for owners to kill and eat their horses on their own property but the meat cannot be sold to others.) Ellyn mentions the irony in the fact that the horse meat is contaminated from antibiotics, de-wormers and other drugs that loving owners pump into their horses to keep them healthy. It's a case of the biter being bit when buyers are willing to purchase this illegal, ill-gotten meat and then get sick and possibly die from eating it. Some think that the killings are a result of the recession, that people need cheap meat. There is even a theory that there is a cultural belief that maintains that horse meat cures diseases.
A note about the wonderful South Florida SPCA and Ellyn Robinson: In one of the killings, a mare was killed but her foal spared. Ellyn and others are trying to get the owner to allow the SPCA to take the foal to its rescue ranch until the foal overcomes the trauma of witnessing his mother's horrible death. Ellyn says he's only about two months old. She has volunteered to pay the expenses for his care.
There is a reward fund being set up so that the police can get more citizen information. If you would like to contribute, please send your checks to:
South Florida SPCA
15476 NW 77th Ct #440
Miami Lakes, FL 33016
The memo line on the check should read: reward fund.
The check should be payable to the South Florida SPCA
Or:
Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers
Attn: Maureen
1030 NW 111 Ave.
Miami, FL 33172
The memo line on the check should read: Dade County Horses
The check should be payable to Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers
For more on this situation, go the the Protecting Horses link on my website at www.http.mmfisher.com.
Here are some helpful links:
www.http.helpthehorses.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/1161684.html
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/search/dispatcher.front?Query=horse+slaughter&target=article&sortby=display_time+descending
http://cbs4.com/local/horse.butchered.burned.2.1104065.html
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/Another-Horse-Cut-and-Killed-For-Meat.html
http://www.justnews.com/video/20203309/index.html
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