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A12 WORLD NEWS
Friday 9 November 2018
Gruesome find leaves Venezuelan veterinary students in tears

By SCOTT SMITH sneaking onto campus.
MARACAY, Venezuela (AP) "A loss like that is pretty
— Rafael Toro, a student at expensive," said professor
Venezuela's top veterinary Daniel Vargas, who over-
school, suspected some- sees the university's cattle
thing was amiss when a program.
beloved horse called Miss Venezuelans have tradi-
Congeniality didn't greet tionally been repulsed by
him at the fence one re- the thought of eating horse
cent morning along with meat, making recent de-
others in the campus' small velopments here especially
herd. puzzling, say professors,
The bright-eyed, bay-col- who suspect customers are
ored mare had earned her buying horse meat at their
nickname for helping dis- local butcher thinking it is
abled students overcome beef.
their fear of riding horses. The faculty reports each
They say she was smart and case, but police have yet
even trotted up when you to arrest any suspects. The
called her name. school's budget has been
To his shock, Toro discov- frozen for over a decade,
ered the horse's skin and leading security guards to
dismembered bones hid- walk off the job and leave
den among trees in the cor- the campus an open tar-
ner pasture of the sprawl- get, university officials said.
ing campus in the central "It could be an inside job,
Venezuelan city of Mara- or someone from outside,"
cay. Thieves overnight had said Isis Vivas, dean of the
hopped the fence, slaugh- veterinary school. "Any-
tered the horse and made thing is possible."
off with her meat — either In this Oct 26, 2018 photo, Rafael Toro, a student at Venezuela's top veterinary school points with Toro, a lifelong animal lov-
a machete the skeleton of a horse called Miss Congeniality, at Central University of Venezuela in
to sell or to feed their hun- Maracay, Venezuela. er who plans to graduate
gry families. Associated Press next year, believes Miss
"I burst into tears," said Toro, Congeniality was singled
who delivered the grim herds are meeting the ning down their backs. monthly minimum wage out from the small heard
news to other students. "We same fate. There are media But in a new low, bandits is under $10 at the widely- of five horses. She was four
came here, and together reports of small groups of have turned their attention used black market rate. years old, plump and in the
we all cried." men caught smuggling sto- to slaughtering horses and Months before Miss Con- prime of life. Amid the trag-
The slaughter isn't an isolat- len horse meat — accom- cattle vital to training the geniality's demise, crooks ic loss, he safeguards her
ed incident. Across Vene- panied by gory pictures of South American nation's slaughtered two horses do- skull so future generations
zuela, as the once-wealthy dismembered horses. next generation of veteri- nated to the university and of students can continue
oil nation's economy col- Professors on campus at narians. that were temporarily quar- to learn from her, such as
lapses and sky-high infla- Central University of Vene- The meat from a full-grown antined at a nearby pas- gauging a horse's age by
tion leaves residents strug- zuela in Maracay complain horse could fetch roughly ture, Toro said. Since late examining the teeth.
gling to afford scarce food, that thieves have walked $1,400 at market, based 2016, seven cows — includ- "We would have liked for
crimes of hunger and des- off with air conditioners on the equivalent prices ing a prized bull at the cen- her to stick around here
peration are soaring. and electrical wires, forc- of Venezuelan beef, mak- ter of the school's breed- with us and leave us her
Ranchers across the coun- ing them to teach in dark ing it a lucrative venture in ing program — have fallen offspring," Toro said. "Sadly,
try complain their livestock classrooms with sweat run- a country where a worker's prey to overnight bandits this is not the case."q