Richard "Kudo" Couto and Miami's Horse Slaughter Epidemic Get the ESPN E:60 Treatment

Ian Witlen

​With E:60's feature on Dada 5000 and back-yard brawling, Outside the Lines' investigation of gambling on South Florida pee-wee football, and now an E:60 doc about the horse-meat black market in the sticks of Miami-Dade County, ESPN's reporters appear to have been camped out in our hood for the past few weeks. It's not surprising: What place has a better batshit sports culture than South Florida?

E:60's horse slaughter segment, which aired Tuesday, focused on animal activist Richard "Kudo" Couto's rescue of thoroughbred racehorse and Secretariat descendant Freedom's Flight -- and Kudo's subsequent role in forcing authorities to dismantle the illegal slaughterfarm haven in Northwest Miami-Dade known as the C-9 Basin. New Times has run features about both the illegal slaughter industry and the quest of "Yuppie Rambo" Kudo. To be frank, ESPN didn't add much new to the story of the horse-slashing guarjiros -- though it's always nice to see our homegrown maniacs get some national media shine.

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