HIALEAH, Fla. – A total of five people, including two 14-year-olds, were arrested over the weekend, accused of running an illegal slaughterhouse on city property.
Rudesindo "Rudy" Acosta is charged with three counts of animal cruelty, one count of using a firearm during the commission of a felony, 40 counts of animal confinement and three counts of conspiracy.
Also arrested were Acosta's godson, Luis Cardova, 24, and Javier Estevanez, 43. Two 14-year-olds, also Acosta's godson's, were taken into custody. Officials say the four worked as butchers in Acosta's operation.
In an affidavit, graphics images showed Acosta slaughtering two pigs and a cow.
"They've got poles where they can hang the animals and everything. It's pretty bad," said Steve Rubin, who volunteered to rescue the animals.
Police said Richard Couto with the Animal Recovery Mission photographed Acosta killing the animals.
"They were killing all the animals with sledgehammers, axes, flame throwers," said Couto.
"They have all sorts of things in there, like blowtorches and chainsaws and stun guns. Half the time they don't even kill them, they just cut them up while they're alive," said Andrew Malek with Animal Recover Mission.
According to the affidavit, on Sept. 30, Acosta repeatedly hit a pig in the head with a sledgehammer. He then stabbed the pig with a knife and dragged it across the slaughterhouse near Northwest 97th Avenue.
On Oct. 29, prosecutors said Acosta and several others restrained and killed a cow and another pig.
Prosecutors said Acosta was running the slaughterhouse on land owned by the city of Hialeah. They added that the slaughterhouse was in a land zoned as raw agricultural area, meaning no structures could be built there.
A total of 600 other animals were rescued on Saturday. Five had to be euthanized on site and several died overnight. Rescue workers are not sure why the animals died, but think it may be from disease. Many of the animals are heading to farms in Ocala and Okeechobee.
City officials will be inspecting the area's drinking water as blood from many of the live kills could have seeped into the water supply.