Body builders, 50-year-old Milagros Cowan, AKA Milly Cowan, and her younger husband Alex Paez, aged 48, face animal cruelty charges for a second time in four years. In this most recent incident, police and volunteers found three seriously malnourished horses on the couple's South Miami-Dade ranch on Friday, October 23rd.
The courts hit Cowan with 4 misdemeanor counts of animal abuse on Friday, while Paez goes to trial in December for previous charges placed against him earlier in the year.
According to Paez, the three horses found on his ranch in May are a "little thin and just needed to be dewormed." Pictures show a different story. The horses' skin clung to their emaciated bodies and their over-grown hooves made it difficult for them to walk comfortably. One of the horses could barely walk at all, her hooves were so long. Not that it mattered much. There was so much junk in their living space they could not move around easily anyway.
The Animal-rights volunteers who aided the police in rescue efforts say "There was absolutely no place to turn out the horses." There was even flammable material and items that could have easily cut the horses. Other items cluttering the area included "old boats and trailers, outboard engines, buckets of paint, fiberglass material," etc.
There is picture evidence that in 2014 at least one of the horses, a grey mare, was in good health. The picture show the couple holding the lovely creature's reigns as they pose for the camera in an aptly barbaric fashion. Though, it is doubtful that even Conan would have stooped to their level.
This is the second time Paez has been charged with animal abuse. With regard to the original charges Paez's lawyer, Alexander Michaels says they "were no big deal," and were dropped when Paez took advantage of a first-offenders "pre-trial intervention" program. Perhaps this time the charges will stick and Miami-Dade police will not get caught beating a dead horse.
The horses are now in the capable and caring hands of Laurie Waggoner who says, "They're doing well. They've gained a lot of weight,They're friendly now. Before, you couldn't touch them. They were completely wild."
