It's the act of animal cruelty that shocked the nation - 5 Belize City teenagers flogging a defenseless horse with a machete.
It's inexplicable until you understand that there are rival groups of young men in the Collet Area who collect horses - and also steal and torture each other's horses.
It's crazy stuff - and, appalled by this act of wanton animal cruelty - the public is calling out for stiff penalties for youths they see as menaces.
And perhaps that's why today no less than the Commissioner of Police appeared to prosecute the case.
The five teens, 2 of them aged 15, one aged 16 and two aged 19 are charged with "Cattle Theft " , "Cruelty to an Animal" and "Abetment to commit Cruelty to an Animal".
We spoke to the Commissioner outside of court as he waited for the arraignment to start:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I am here to do the arraignment for those persons who were charged with respect to the incident involving the horse."
"It's not a matter of slapping the books when we do charge, we have to do charges based on evidence that exists in the ice and so the police have charged those individuals with three counts, one count of cruelty to animal and one count of abetment to commit cruelty to an animal and one count of cattle theft."
"The last person who was being sought by the police was captured a few moments ago and that's the reason why we have put off the arraignment until this afternoon where that person will also be able to be arraigned with the others."
"It is something that is really outrageous, it has shocked the public sense, the public conscience and I think that we must give it great priority. Again as has been said by the humane society and even the ordinary Belizeans who witnessed what happened. They are saying that we need to do something that is going to send a strong signal we have many animals out here that are owned by people and we must always ensure that we care for these animals and we show empathy towards them. I for one I'm not an animal lover but I do respect those who love animals and I don't think anybody should treat and animal in such way as we have seen in that video footage so again I'm just here to do my part in ensuring that from the police department stand point we are determined to ensure that those persons who commit these types of acts that they are brought justice."
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