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Sixty-two starving horses from Nicaragua were brought to Costa Rica for human consumption, police say

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(Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Public Security)

(Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Public Security)

August 26th, 2014 (InsideCostaRica.com) A total of 62 starving horses and four mules that were discovered on a farm in San Carlos were illegally smuggled from Nicaragua, and police believe they were destined for slaughter and human consumption as food.

 

The horses were also suffering from numerous wounds and infested with ticks.

 

A man by the last name of Artavia was arrested in the case.

 

Nicaragua has been suffering from record drought this year.  Costa Rica’s National Animal Health Service (SENASA) reported last week that hundreds of cattle were being illegally smuggled each week from Nicaragua to Costa Rica.  The trend is believed to be associated with the record drought affecting that country.

 

This year’s record drought has killed thousands of cattle and dried up crops throughout Central America.  In northern Nicaragua, vultures can be seen eating the carcasses of cows that are dropping dead in dried out pastures.

 

The lack of rain has been blamed on the probable arrival of the El Niño weather phenomenon, which is characterized by unusually warm Pacific Ocean temperatures that can trigger droughts.

 

Nicaragua’s government says the country is enduring its worst drought since 1976, which has also ravaged the country’s first harvest.

 

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  • disqus_r8w0IwvvLw

    Drought in CR?? There is a chemical being sprayed about 12,000 ft for “other reasons”that seems to be making its way down to the ground where it dries out the roots of plants. Grasses are effected first then eventually trees. Costa Rica is not immune to this “weather modification”.

    • El Torito

      What colour is the sky in your world?

    • toolman78

      No, pretty sure it’s just plain old lack of rain. It’s strange how stuff just dries out when water doesn’t fall out of the sky like it normally does.

  • Ken Morris

    If the cops are so certain that the horses were destined to be slaughtered for food, I wish they’d tell us how they know. Some of us might want to avoid those restaurants after all.

    • toolman78

      Starving horses are most likely not destined for human consumption, the meat would be extremely tough and there wouldn’t be much of it. I really wonder how they came up that idea. I’d imagine they would be worth far more in a few months after they’ve regained some weight and could be sold for riding. Horses for human consumption tend to be young horses that for whatever reason aren’t well suited for riding or work, i.e joint problems and the like. And as far as I know it’s not a common practice here in Costa Rica anyway.

      • Ken Morris

        That’s what I thought, namely that starving horses aren’t even worth much for human consumption. The strange thing though is that the authorities sound certain, which makes me think that they must know the buyer and then the overall supply chain. But if they know this, you’d think they would release this information and that would be the story. Maybe they don’t really know anything, though. There’s lots of misinformation in CR and this seems a possible instance.

    • http://insidecostarica.com/ Timothy Williams
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