Glad my horses don’t live in FL. Hope this is not a pattern…
Its horrible but I think this will continue until if/when the individual(s) are caught. If I lived in FL I’d get some titanium chains/locks for gates, stalls, cameras that connect to wifi with night vision they are not terribly $, 60 each. I have them at home to keep an eye on my dogs during the day. Also some sort of guard dogs…
[QUOTE=findeight;8395417]
That does say they had “only limited information”, not that they were totally ignorant of what went on[/QUOTE]
It also says, “The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office says two men sought for questioning in the case of a slaughtered show horse were not connected to the crime.”
These people are getting brazen. A dead end road is usually the safest place because it can be blocked off and then there is no way for the thieves to escape. AND the lady had a padlock on the gate.
The thieves had obviously cased the place and knew exactly when to go in and how to open the gate.
This is really scary.
[On a lighter note, one horse was described as being a “dark gorilla” color. Perhaps the writer meant grulla? 
]
This is getting scary. I feel bad for the owner. What a nightmare. I hope they find the horses safe and healthy. I wonder why the owner thinks her horses are in Miami?
[QUOTE=50ShadesOfHay;8399868]
Its horrible but I think this will continue until if/when the individual(s) are caught. If I lived in FL I’d get some titanium chains/locks for gates, stalls, cameras that connect to wifi with night vision they are not terribly $, 60 each. I have them at home to keep an eye on my dogs during the day. Also some sort of guard dogs…[/QUOTE]
I agree, this will continue until whoever’s committing the crimes. I wonder if it’s a group of people or individuals doing it. I’m not sure it’s a good idea to keep your horses in a pasture, it probably made it easier for the thieves to take the horses.
[QUOTE=Joanne;8399383]
Three horses are missing just south of Palmetto, in Sarasota.
http://wfla.com/2015/11/12/sheriff-3-horses-stolen-from-sarasota-farm/[/QUOTE]
Only thing about this story that made me wonder is that the owner supposedly visited “every day” but they say the horses were taken “sometime between Sunday and Tuesday.” 
I will say that even in the other corner of the US where I live, this has made me think a bit more about security here. If I was in the area where this was happening, I’d be like the others posting here, wanting lights, cameras, and a big mean dog.
If she visited every day why is there a question of when the horses disappeared - between Sunday and Tuesday? So she did skip a couple of days and that will haunt her forever if her babies aren’t found. Like I mentioned earlier about someone attempting to steal my horses, people are brazen and will figure out a way to try to get what they want.
[QUOTE=Joanne;8399383]
Three horses are missing just south of Palmetto, in Sarasota.
http://wfla.com/2015/11/12/sheriff-3-horses-stolen-from-sarasota-farm/[/QUOTE]
Update:
"Sarasota deputies located the three horses stolen from a local far[m], according to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office.
The animals were found Saturday in a pasture in the 600 block of Dog Kennel Road in eastern Sarasota County. Deputies haven’t released any information on who might have taken them."
[QUOTE=Joanne;8401698]
Update:
"Sarasota deputies located the three horses stolen from a local far[m], according to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office.
The animals were found Saturday in a pasture in the 600 block of Dog Kennel Road in eastern Sarasota County. Deputies haven’t released any information on who might have taken them."[/QUOTE]
Weren’t the horses in a pasture on the same road when they were stolen?? Whoever took them didn’t take them far. Glad that they found them alive.
Yes, they were found in a different pasture on the same road. Do you think it is possible they got out, were found loose and put back in the nearest pasture?
If they truly were originally located in Palmetto, that is about 20 miles north and across some bridges from where they were found, so I am guessing probably not.
My guess is thanks to the word getting out (to more than just the horse community) the thieves dumped them, or maybe that was a holding area for the thieves and thanks to the word getting out, someone recognized them.
ETA - never mind, I saw that they were located south of Palmetto, not in Palmetto!
Stable employee attacked not very far from the Stephens farm.
http://wfla.com/2015/11/16/manatee-county-horse-crimes-have-owners-on-edge/
Now people will need two guys staying in the barn to watch out for each other.
Barns may need to hire actual security - maybe even off duty police officers.
In this day and age, automatic lights and cameras have become relatively inexpensive. I couldn’t imagine being in that high-risk area and not having both on either end of the property and random placement in the barn/s.
It appears the horse butchers may have returned to the scene of the crime:
http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/horse-butchers-return-to-scene-of-crime-to-kill-again-owner-says
And per Mr Stephens there is the possibility their two imported horses were put on the kill list at the quarantine facility: "The recent horse brought in was housed in the same area. And the similarities between the two horses doesn’t stop there.
“He was purchased on the same shopping trip as Phedras but was not cleared to come over. There wasn’t room on the plane he had to wait for a flight, stuff like that,” Stephens said. “And the same carriers brought him over. He came out of same quarantine in Miami. So, you start to say is there a connection here is somebody just watching that station.”
Two incidents at the same barn should never have happened ! IMHO !
Authorities and owners and farm staff all have some explaining to do !
I should add - that another horse was NOT butchered. All the info is in the article.
According to Stephens they had beefed up security since the one horse was butchered and now are going to hire security guards. There was someone on the farm going from stall to stall with a flashlight. They tripped an alarm and were seen on the surveillance video.
One incident should have been more than enough to get their security in the Highest order !
As I stated on the other thread …
Thank god this group is NOT in charge of our National Security !
