George Baker is a large scale kill buyer who ships hundreds of horses to Presidio, TX every month to supply the Juarez plant in Mexico. Public documents indicate that a lot of his horses are rejected by MX authorities every month for injuries or sickness. In May 2013 alone, the documents indicate shipment of dozens of horses with injuries, shipment of blind horses as well as shipments of horses suffering from colic. Additionally, several horses that were listed on the paperwork were missing at the time of inspection by the Mexican veterinarian. George Baker also has his own trucking company (DOT 1127211) with multiple trucks, which he uses to ship the horses to Presidio.
When investigators arrived at the extensive collecting station in Stroud they noted approx. 350 horses, mules and donkeys in outdoor pens adjacent to a large barn. A loading ramp was visible at the front of the premises.
All pens had hay and water buckets, some pens have access to a natural pond. Some shelter was available, but not for all of the horses. One of the pens held mares with a lot of little foals. Some of the mares already had slaughter tags attached to their hips. Their foals will likely suffer the same fate once they reach 6 month of age and can legally be shipped to slaughter.
Several horses were very thin. One was lying flat on the ground without movement and appeared to be dead. There was a lot of activity at the premises, several truckloads of horses arriving from Mid America Stockyards were unloaded to the pen area. On July 4th, investigators observed workers gathering horses with ATV’s and moving them towards the loading ramp through a covered chute. Slaughter tags were attached. Workers hit the horses hard over the head and face with sticks in order to make them move into the crowded holding pen next to the ramp. An hour later, Baker’s gold colored truck and single deck trailer backed up to the ramp and started to load. Approx. 33 horses were moved into the trailer. At 12:40pm, the truck left and started heading west.
The solo driver acted very paranoid while driving, giving wrong turn signals and switching lanes multiple times. At 1:10pm, he entered the turnpike and started heading towards Oklahoma City. From there, he started heading south towards Texas. The Presidio export pens are approx. 750 miles away from Stroud, Ok and the transport takes longer than 11 hours. It is impossible for a solo driver to legally complete this drive. A look at the FMCSA website confirms that Baker’s trucking company already has 23 “Hours of Service” violations (falsified log books, driving longer than 11 hours, violation of 60/70 rule, no driver’s record of duty status). The company’s performance percentile is at 99%, with 100% being the worst performance possible.
Animals’ Angels will report these violations to the FMCSA and other relevant authorities.