PETA Statement re State Attorney’s Decision Not to Prosecute OBS Director
For Immediate Release:
May 3, 2024
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding the Florida state attorney’s decision not to prosecute Ocala Breeders’ Sales (OBS) executive Tod Wojciechowski. The sales director was arrested by the Ocala Police Department on April 10 and charged with “robbery by sudden snatching” after taking a backpack from a PETA investigator who was peacefully and legally filming the euthanasia of Frosten, a young and inexperienced Thoroughbred forced to run a timed sprint at the OBS under tack show. Frosten appeared to panic and collided with the rail, sustaining a fatal injury. (Please see the video here.)
Wojciechowski’s arrest and humiliating mugshot are perhaps enough to give him second thoughts about stealing other people’s property, but PETA’s goal was and is only to stop the deaths of these vulnerable young Thoroughbreds on the Ocala Breeders’ Sales track and to expose the damage and abuse they endure, which are far worse than the theft of a backpack.
On the heels of Frosten’s death, PETA sent a formal request to 5th Judicial Circuit State Attorney William Gladson on April 25, urging him to pursue criminal cruelty-to-animals charges against those responsible for recklessly overdriving Frosten and a filly known as Hip #1041, who sustained a catastrophic musculoskeletal injury at an OBS under tack show in 2023 and required euthanasia. Overdriving horses and willfully killing them are illegal under Florida law.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
