Caretakers found the brown American quarter horse Bonita lying dead and bloodied on the stable floor early Sunday morning.

Her front legs had been hacked, as had portions of her rump.

Not far from the carcass lay her months-old foal.

``I get a flashback in my mind of what happened,'' said Gloria Masdeu, a caretaker at Stone City, a ranch in the 12100 block of Northwest 157th Street where Bonita was boarded. ``I don't know how people could do that. It's just awful.''

Since January, the remains of 17 horses have been found in Miami-Dade County, slaughtered and abandoned on or near rural roads. In May, two horses -- their throats cut and flesh stripped from their legs -- were found in a field in Miramar in Broward County.

``The majority of the found carcasses exhibit signs that the horses were butchered and meat removed,'' said Capt. Scott Andress, commander of Miami-Dade police department's Agricultural Patrol Section, one of the agencies investigating the incidents.

DEMAND FOR MEAT

Police believe the killers carrying out these malicious acts are motivated by money.

``We've received anecdotal information from horse and livestock owners that there's a black market demand,'' Andress said.

``We're attempting to confirm that such a market exists and, if so, to what extent.''

The gruesome discoveries have been in the northwest and southwest portion of Miami-Dade. Police are tracking several leads and have developed a number of theories, said Andress, who declined to discuss the specific theories because of the ongoing investigation.

Police saw horse slaughters rise a few months ago and have been actively investigating since the first case surfaced on Jan. 11. Several others followed, including the May 5 slaughter of two horses from a small farm off Flamingo Road in Miramar.

The horses' owner was ``devastated'' and in ``shock when he saw these poor animals and the way they were inhumanely killed,'' said Miramar Detective Yessenia Diaz, who is investigating the case.

More killings followed in June, with the latest the Sunday death of Bonita.

In Miami-Dade, only two of the horses' owners have been located, Andress said.

``What we need is assistance from the community in contacting police if they see things suspicious,'' Andress said. ``These areas are rural, they're somewhat remote. It's not impossible, but it is a little more difficult to develop eyewitness leads.''

While it is legal for a person to slaughter his or her own horse and eat the meat, it is illegal to sell horse meat in Florida, police said.

``We believe that there is a fairly large and growing black market for horse meat in South Florida,'' said Jeanette Jordan, president of South Florida Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Horses weigh more than 1,000 pounds, which to Jordan, sounds like too much for one family to eat -- hence the assumption of sale.

She warned that unless specifically raised for human consumption, horses are exposed to chemicals that could harm anyone who eats them.

Richard ``Kudo'' Couto, an SPCA investigator, has been looking into recent cases.

``The meat is definitely being sold on the black market,'' he said. ``There are volunteers working on the weekend who live in rural areas who have had horse meat offered to them in their homes, people driving in trucks with coolers offering to sell it for $7 a pound, $20 a pound.''