ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - Just days ago, the nearly 1,300-pound, powerful jumping horse with a shiny chestnut coat named Phedras de Blondel arrived at his new home in the U.S., a farm owned by a champion rider in Florida.
On Sunday morning, his owner discovered a horrific scene near his stall: the 12-year-old gelding had been slaughtered and butchered, most likely for his meat. Only his head and neck were left intact. Now, detectives are trying to find the perpetrators.
"What they did to this horse had nothing to do with his value," Debbie Stephens, who owns the 27-acre ranch in Palmetto, said Monday. She would not disclose the price she paid for the horse, but show horses can sell for tens of thousands of dollars.
Stephens is a veteran show jumper and holds the women's high jump record of 7 feet, 8 inches. Her husband was a co-designer of the show jumping courses for the 2008 Olympic Games in China.
The couple and others have raised more than $18,000 toward a reward they hope will lead to an arrest. Manatee County Sheriff's deputies say that's what it will take to crack the case.
Horse meat is illegal in Florida, but a black market for it exists, said Nick Atwood, a spokesman for the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida. During the 2010 Florida Legislative Session, he said, a bill passed that strengthened the state's restrictions on the sale of horse meat for human consumption. It is now illegal in Florida to sell, purchase, distribute, transport or possess horse meat unless "it is clearly stamped, marked, or described as horse meat for human consumption."
There are currently no U.S. slaughterhouses that process horse meat, however, making it difficult to obtain legally.
While eating horse meat is generally taboo in the U.S., it is common in dishes in some Caribbean and European countries. Atwood said there are some people living in the U.S. willing to pay top dollar.