Animals’ Angels investigators followed Jason Fabrizius truck (DOT2431837) loaded with slaughter horses from the Billings auction after the October 27th loose horse sale. Fabrizius, who used to buy horses for long time Colorado kill buyer Charles Carter, only recently acquired his own truck & trailer, a blue Peterbilt. The truck and his solo driver left the auction premises at 5:34pm and started to head East on I-90. At 7:25pm, the truck arrived at the Wyoming port of entry and left the highway for inspection. Afterwards, he continued driving and started heading towards Colorado.
The driver appeared to be very tired at that point, at times driving 20 miles under the speed limit only to increase speed the next moment to 90 miles/hour. Close to Denver, the driver finally noticed that he was being followed and started to give wrong turn signals and to stop along the road in an attempt to get rid of the investigators. However, already knowing the truck’s destination, investigators managed to observe the truck until he arrived at the Fabrizius premises in Eaton, CO at 1:38am. The horses were unloaded into large holding pens in the back of the property.
The next day, the horses were reloaded into the trailer at 1:10pm. Shortly thereafter, the truck started to head South on I-25. After a few stops for weigh stations and fuel, the truck crossed Raton Pass (Elevation 7834ft) in New Mexico at 6:00pm. When the driver stopped in Las Vegas, NM to get something to eat (7:45pm), he noticed that he was being followed again. Since investigators knew that the truck was heading to Los Lunas, they decided to abandon the trailing and catch back up with the truck at the final destination.
They arrived at the feedlot at 10:30pm, just in time to document the Fabrizius truck leaving the premises empty. When the driver realized that he had been caught again, he snapped and tried to run the investigator’s car over with his truck. The attempt failed and the truck started heading back north to Colorado.
Overall, the horses bought by Fabrizius at the Billings auction travelled 1037 miles and spent 17 hours confined inside a trailer. However, their dreadful journey continued the next day, when they were loaded once again to be shipped to one of the export pens along the Mexican border (500 miles) and from there to their final destination – the Mexican slaughter plant. (643 miles)