15. August 2019

Argentina | Mar del Plata, province of Buenos Aires | Stolen horses at slaughterhouse Infriba

The confiscated horses are marked with slaughter ear tags.

A horse has a severe open wound, which remains untreated.

Horse owners are searching for their stolen horses but are denied access.

On 6th August, we are informed that a truck with horses has been confiscated by the police on the way to the EU-approved slaughterhouse Infriba in Mar del Plata. The horses had been discovered on a slaughter truck owned by the Onorato family. An AWF|TSB team travels to Argentina to investigate and document this case. Out of the 32 horses on board of the truck, at least eight had been stolen, according to the security minister of Buenos Aires. All horses in the group had ear tags at the time of confiscation. This is a clear evidence that their papers had been forged.

Since the police has no place for the confiscated horses, they are kept at the slaughterhouse for weeks. They do not receive any medical attention. One horse has a serious leg injury left untreated.

On 27th August, two horse owners who have recognised their horses on Facebook travel with us to the Infriba slaughterhouse to identify their horses. However, Infriba denies the owners access. They are not even allowed to look over the wall. The slaughterhouse operator calls the police. The officers do not help the owners of the stolen horses but demand that they leave.

Until the end of August, only one horse is given back to his owner. One of the confiscated horses dies in the slaughterhouse.