Malnourished, underweight horse leads to arrest of Collier County couple

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A man and woman in Collier County have been arrested after they reportedly failed to provide proper nutrition, shelter and medical care to a horse they were caring for.

Collier County Sheriff’s Office detectives with the Animal Cruelty Investigations Alliance arrested Diego Alex Trevino Garza, 43, and Elisa Godinez, 38, Wednesday.

Monarcas, a brown and white male quarter horse roughly aged 20-25, was found severely emaciated when a Collier County Sheriff’s Officer deputy found the animal running loose in the middle of the night in Golden Gate Estates earlier in August.

The couple’s arrests come after CCSO was alerted to a horse running loose on 37th Avenue Northeast in Golden Gate Estates, around midnight on Aug. 11.

“A CCSO Agriculture Unit deputy captured the extremely thin and severely malnourished horse and transported it to Collier County Domestic Animal Services [DAS] for evaluation and care,” CCSO stated in their Facebook post.

Through their investigation, detectives tracked the horse to the couple, who live in a trailer on a property on 37th Avenue Northeast.

The couple told detectives they’ve owned Monarcas since last August or September after the horse’s previous owners moved away.

CCSO stated that the area where Monarcas was kept did not have any shelter, hay or roughage. All of which a horse needs to sustain its livelihood.

The couple relinquished custody of Monarcas to the DAS.

“There is absolutely no reason a helpless animal should have been allowed to suffer and not receive proper care, especially with all of the resources in our community,” CCSO Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said. “Thanks to the efforts of our Animal Cruelty Investigations Alliance, Monarcas is now being properly cared for and is already showing signs of improvement. His now former owners are in my custody and will be held accountable for their criminal actions.”

Dr. Darrell Harvey, a large animal veterinarian, evaluated Monarcas and stated that the horse was starving due to insufficient and improper food.

Harvey said that a horse of Monarcas’ size should weigh 900 to 1,000 pounds. Monarcas weighed 670 pounds when he arrived at DAS.

Harvey told detectives that without proper food and shelter, Monarcas would have likely died.

Monarcas also suffered from rain rot on his back due to being outside without any shelter.

However, in the few weeks that Monarcas has been at DAS, the horse has been gaining weight and showing improvement with proper nutrition and shelter.

WINK spoke with Track to Trail Thoroughbreds, which specializes in rescuing horses. President Cynthia Gilbert said she hasn’t seen a horse in that bad of condition before.

We asked Lieutenant Chad Parker if the owners had any remorse towards the horse’s condition.

“They were both remorseful and felt bad that it got to this level, but unfortunately there are things that they can do to get that horse taken care of and give it up for adoption,” he said.

After Monarcas was taken to DAS, they called Track to Trail to help.

“We needed long-term care, so we went down there really early on Sunday morning and met the horse and talked to the staff,” Gilbert said.

Gilbert said that, unfortunately in the Collier estates area there are horses that are very thin and in poor condition. We asked why.

“A problem mentally with a person that’s not able to cope. It could be they just aren’t financially or educated enough; rarely I think it’s abuse on purpose,” Gilbert said.

The couple has been charged with aggravated animal cruelty.