We first visited Raúl Onorato’s farm in San Vicente at the end of August, after the confiscation of some of his horses in the “field of horror” in Ezeiza. At that time, we saw no horses at his farm. Today, 2½ months later, there are several hundreds of horses on his pastures. It is a sunny day but the animals have no shade available, not even from…

In August, 400 malnourished and dying horses were confiscated in Ezeiza from the Onorato family clan, who is known to have been delivering stolen horses to EU-approved slaughterhouses for many years. The horses are now in the care of our Argentinian partner CRRE (Centro de Rescate y Rehabilitación Equino).

The authorities do not allow the horses…

While our team is in Argentina investigating about the illegal trade of stolen horses, we learn about another case. More than 400 malnourished horses have been discovered on a field in Ezeiza near Buenos Aires. 25 of them are dead, four are dying. These horses belong to a dealer named Raúl Onorato, the father-in-law of Hernan Arbeo who recently…

We visit the acopio (assembly centre) of horse dealer Angel Langhoff for the first time. There are approx. 100 horses present, including a few ponies and foals. Most of them are kept in small holding pens with dirt floors. They have no weather protection. The condition of the horses varies greatly. While some are malnourished, others are rather…

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…

In September 2018, our team travels to Argentinain order to see if the conditions for slaughter horses have improved after the repeated promises of the Swiss and European importers. We inspect again the two largest horse slaughterhouses in the country: Lamar in the province of Buenos Aires, and Land L in the province of Cordoba, as well as the…

From 8:15 until 10:30, more than 200 pregnant mares go through the blood extraction procedure. They are moved through the raceways and into the restraint boxes by brute force. The mares are hit with iron hooks, including on their heads, and poked in sensitive body parts. Wooden sticks are also used. Once they are inside the restraint box, the…

Our follow-up investigation in Argentina and Uruguay in November and December 2017 showed that nothing has changed since our first investigation in 2012. We documented once again the whole production chain: horse collection centres, rodeos, transports and EU-approved slaughterhouses. At all places visited, horses are still systematically mistreated…

Our team visits General Pico horse slaughterhouse near Cordoba. Since our last visit there is still insufficient weather protection. Only one row of holding pens is partly covered by a fabric roof and the majority of the pens are fully exposed to sun and rain. We estimate that there are around 500 horses in total. The horses are very crowded, which…