ADELAIDE (Reuters) -
A number
of duped Australian horse owners allegedly handed over their
animals for racing trials, not knowing the horses were likely to
end up in pet bowls or as delicacies on overseas menus, police
said Saturday.
Sergeant Steve Buckle told Reuters two men from Victoria state,
whose names were not released, had been charged with the theft
of 22 horses, most of harness racing standard.
Buckle said police alleged the horses, stolen in Victoria over
the past six months, had in most cases been sold to
slaughterhouses that, according to local newspaper reports, may
have paid as little as A$400 per horse.
Although police could not confirm the final destinations of the
horse meat, they believed it likely that some had been sold
overseas for human consumption.
"Because most of these (slaughtered) animals do end up overseas,
a percentage of them must be ending up on the tables of Europe
and Japan, but some end up in dog food, too, there's no doubt
about that,'' he said.
Police allege the men approached the owners of the horses and
offered to train them for harness racing, or arranged to lease
them for a number of years.
Police appealed to horse owners to check out leased animals if
they had not heard anything about them for some time.
"I think a few of them will find that, in point of actual fact,
(the horse) doesn't exist anymore,'' Buckle said, adding police
believed the thefts had been going on for about three years.
Horse owner Donna Robertson told the Herald Sun newspaper she
and her partner were devastated when they realized three horses
from their central Victorian property had probably ended up
being sold as a delicacy in Europe.
"Our horses are our life,'' she said. "They're second to our own
children.''
