Once again, Animals’ Angels has uncovered infuriating proof that it is always a terrible idea to support any online program linked to a kill buyer such as Bruce Rotz, a convicted animal abuser who runs a horse slaughter operation in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania.
This month’s newsletter highlights why purchasing horses from kill-buyer brokers or donating money to “help” the horses in affiliated programs only allows the greed-fueled suffering and slaughter to continue.
We urge all our supporters to share this newsletter with as many people as possible in an effort to stop Rotz from conning more well-meaning animal lovers into supporting the inhumane slaughter they desperately want to stop.
The Horrible History of Bruce Rotz
During numerous investigations of Bruce Rotz over the past 15 years, Animals’ Angels has uncovered an appalling range of abuse and cruelty. A few of the countless offenses that have been committed by Rotz and his crew include:
Transporting horses to slaughter in conditions that led to thirty innocent horses being burned alive.
Packing so many horses into a trailer after one auction that ten of the horses were killed when the truck pulling the trailer crashed.
Habitually violating the Commercial Transport of Equines to Slaughter Regulation by committing such inhumane acts as shipping blind and injured horses to slaughter.
Facilitating the sale of former racehorses to slaughter plants by working with a fraudulent horse rescuer who was then charged with multiple felonies for deceptive business practices.
More recently, Rotz was charged with aggravated animal cruelty, which is defined as intentionally or knowingly torturing or causing the death of an animal, after four pigs were found in his barn without any access to food or water.
The distressed, emaciated animals were in terrible condition. Two of the pigs had large tumors all over their bodies and were unable to rise to their feet or stand on their own. One also had an entirely prolapsed rectum.
- responding police officer later testified that upon his arrival he had ordered the suffering animals to be immediately put down, while other witnesses testified that the pigs had been in severe pain for at least two or three days.
Bruce Rotz also testified in his own case, stating that the pigs were “all busted up and very cheap” when he bought them. He admitted that he knew the pigs were down on the ground and “flopping around” but that he did nothing to put them out of their suffering.
In fact, Rotz stated that he purposely delayed putting the animals down while the horse barn was cleared out and the trailer moved closer to the pigs since he “didn’t like having this shit laying around,” in a vulgar reference to the pigs.
He also confessed that he had purposely withheld pain medicine from the pig with the prolapse rectum because he intended to sell the pig to slaughter.
Despite his clear guilt on the charge of aggravated animal cruelty (which can carry a sentence of up to 7 years in prison and a $15,000 fine), Rotz was offered a plea bargain. He pled guilty to two counts of animal neglect and failure to provide sustenance and potable water, a 3rd degree misdemeanor.
As punishment, he incurred only a $100 fine and 12-months of probation with the stipulation that he refrain from neglecting or abusing any animal in his care.
Unfortunately, Animals’ Angels has uncovered that this brush with the law hasn’t changed Rotz one bit – not only does he still neglect/illtreat the animals in his care, but he also dupes innocent horse lovers into making him a lot of money off animal suffering and slaughter.
Horse Rescue and Donors Raise Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars to Support Slaughter
In recent years, Bruce Rotz has teamed up with Virginia horse rescue Colby’s Crew, which was established in 2021, and which has recently been helping Rotz make exorbitant amounts of money online.
This relatively new rescue organization operates multiple social media accounts that feature heartbreaking videos from inside Rotz’s barn. The videos showcase severely sick or injured horses, overcrowded pens, and horses being loaded onto trailers awaiting shipment to slaughter in Canada.
Many of the animals shown in the videos posted by Colby’s Crew are in obvious need of immediate veterinary attention. However, so far there is no indication that anything has been done by the person creating these incriminating videos to hold him accountable or to report him to the Pennsylvania authorities.
Instead of turning Rotz into authorities and advising all their online followers to abstain from supporting his heinous activities in any way, Colby’s Crew has responded by fundraising through its many social media accounts, turning their association with Rotz into a lucrative partnership that, over only a few months’ time, has incredibly generated hundreds of thousands in donations.
Although it's hard to believe, much of this money was given to convicted animal abuser and kill-buyer Rotz in order to “bail out” the condemned horses trapped in his barn.
And even more unbelievably, the tens of thousands of online supporters who have made these donations have been told on many occasions that their donations have “emptied the pen” of all horses, and that no horses were shipped to slaughter thanks to their generous support.
Unfortunately, Animals’ Angels investigators have uncovered a much darker truth. One that does not surprise anyone who knows Bruce Rotz.
Despite $50,000 in Donations, Rotz Sends More Horses to Slaughter
So, what is really happening in Rotz’s barn? A close review of one of Colby’s Crew online campaigns will give you a good idea.
Facebook Post Copyright Colby's Crew/Ohkaytacos
On October 12, 2023, Colby’s Crew announced their biggest online fundraiser yet. They claimed that if they could quickly raise $50,000, Bruce Rotz would stop shipping horses to slaughter and keep his pen empty for the final two months of the year.
As of October 14th, according to the Colby’s Crew social media accounts, $36,000 had already been raised.
Once again, Colby’s Crew announced that kill buyer Rotz would only stop the slaughter for the next two months if supporters donated more money, stating that their donors could literally end East Coast horse slaughter.
Then, on October 15th, Colby’s Crew joyously announced that they “did it” and “history was made” as they claimed Rotz’s horse pen was now empty.
Unfortunately, the official documents we’ve uncovered tell a much different story.
Despite the information donors had been given, our investigators obtained USDA health certificates which clearly show that Rotz never stopped shipping horses in 2023.
In fact, three loads totaling 83 horses were shipped to the Viande Richelieu plant in November and two loads were shipped in December.
A review of previous records all the way back to 2021 confirms this shipment pattern is consistent with Rotz’s past activity, making it clear that he took the donors’ money and continued on with his slaughter business as usual.
The discovery that Bruce Rotz has used his association with Colby’s Crew to deceive donors and collect money while still sending horses to slaughter comes as no surprise to the team at Animals’ Angels.
We have followed Rotz’s career as a kill buyer in the slaughter industry since 2008 and it is clear to us that he will never willingly stop shipping horses to slaughter, despite any promises he might make. Why should he, when his only concern is making money?
There’s little hope that Rotz will ever understand our heartbreak for the earnest, well-meaning people who donated money in an attempt to save innocent animals from suffering or that he will feel even the slightest pang of sorrow for the innocent horses he sent to slaughter.
But there is hope that we can stop his slaughter business for good. By exposing his deceptive practices to as many people as possible, and by sharing this newsletter far and wide, we can shine a much-needed light on the risks of donating to a kill buyer affiliated online program.
At the same time, we can support organizations that are committed to attending auctions and outbidding kill buyers like Rotz instead of lining their pockets.
The Animals’ Angels team is confident that by exposing the true activities of kill buyers and their deceptive online practices, while at the same time supporting legitimate rescue organizations, we can finish off the steadily declining horse slaughter industry for good.