 Probation violation - possession of animals
Bradenton, FL (US)Incident Date: Thursday, Mar 2, 2006
County: Manatee
Local Map: available
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Felipe Munoz
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Authorities were searching for the origin of a 60-acre brush fire on March 2 off State Road 64 when they came across chickens and goats on land owned by farmer Felipe Munoz.
Munoz, 82, was forbidden to have livestock on his property as part of his four-year probation term in a 2002 animal cruelty and unlawful confinement case in Manatee County.
Old allegations of abuse resurfaced after sheriff's deputies arrested Munoz on a probation violation charge in connection with the livestock found on his Wauchula Road property.
"I am completely not surprised," said Shelley Rohl, who runs the Blue Heart animal sanctuary in Myakka City. "He played his age card the last time, and everybody felt sorry for him. He got away with a slap on the wrist."
Munoz, who was being held at the county jail Friday and could not be reached for comment, denied ownership of the chickens, goats and sheep on his property, according to sheriff's reports.
Deputies said Munoz told them that a corporation owned the animals and that he was just feeding them. Manatee sheriff's deputies arrested Munoz on his property, where the fire began at about 11 a.m.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, said Manatee County sheriff's Deputy Rob Hendrickson of the agency's agricultural crimes unit.
The criminal investigation is ongoing, the deputy said.
"He got his warning. That was his probation, and he didn't heed the warning," Hendrickson said.
In 1999, sheriff's officials dismantled what they called an illegal slaughterhouse on Munoz's property in east Bradenton.
Deputies took about 75 goats, 50 rabbits and a sheep from the three-acre lot in the 4000 block of 34th Avenue East. The animals were diseased and starving, authorities said.
Munoz, who was not arrested then, told deputies that he bought the animals at livestock shows. A sheriff's official said the property was littered with the carcasses of dead animals, and there was no fresh food or water available.
Munoz told the Herald-Tribune in interviews then that he didn't mistreat the animals. He said he fed them regularly. Area residents bought goat meat and other items from Munoz.
Later that year, a judge in Manatee County released to Munoz the animals authorities had seized. The judge said that while Munoz was not providing "reasonable care," there was no evidence of intentional neglect.
Munoz was arrested in 2002 on animal cruelty charges after workers from the Humane Society and Wildlife Rescue raided his east Bradenton farm and found it littered with dozens of dead chickens and the entrails, bones and hooves of sheep and goats.
Investigators had visited the farm at least six times between May 2000 and June 2001.
Authorities found emaciated and wounded animals but no food and no water. The animals were walking on metal and glass debris, and some had medical problems, including sores and malnourishment. The eyes of some goats were crusted shut.
Munoz reportedly dug large fire pits and burned the carcasses of many of the animals that died on his property.
He avoided an animal cruelty charge, pleading guilty to four counts of confining the animals without food or water.
When Munoz was sentenced to probation in February 2003, Judge Rick DeFuria, an animal rights supporter, told him he could not have livestock on his property.
"We're concerned that these innocent animals not be harmed," the judge said in court. Neighborhood MapFor more information about the Interactive Animal Cruelty Maps, see the map notes.
Back to Top References« FL State Animal Cruelty Map
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