HIALEAH GARDENS, Fla. – A Hialeah Gardens man faces animal cruelty and other charges after he was found loading a dead sheep onto the bed of a pickup truck stopped on the side of a street, police said.
Robel Morales, 46, was arrested Sunday on three counts of animal cruelty and one count each of burglary and possession of burglary tools.
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According to the police report, an officer was called to a burglary near Northwest 102nd Avenue and Northwest 138th Street when he saw a man placing something into the bed of a pickup truck stopped on the side of the street. The officer also saw a man sitting in the driver's seat with a knife next to him.
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The driver told the officer that he had a flat tire, pointing to the front left tire, but the officer said in the report that the tire wasn't flat.
Police said the man by the back of the truck was identified as Morales, who tried to run off after the officer noticed a dead Barbados Blackbelly sheep on the truck's bed.
Morales was quickly taken to the ground and detained until other officers arrived, the report said.
"The sheep that was discovered in the back of the truck was freshly slaughtered," the report said. "There were two more by the fence of the property ready to be loaded onto the truck."
Police said the sheep's owner was called and took possession of the dead animals.
Morales was arrested and taken to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
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