Authorities uncovered more than 20 dead animals, including roughly 15 horses and two primates, in varying stages of decomposition when they executed search and seizure warrants at We Care Wildlife Sanctuary in Lakehills, Texas, on the morning of September 4. More than 100 surviving animals, among them horses, goats, pigs, turtles, tortoises, pythons and birds, were pulled from the property and taken to a temporary shelter for examinations, treatment and care.
According to MySA, the Bandera County Precinct 2 Constable's Office executed the warrants with assistance from the Bandera County Sheriff's Office after authorities secured them following photos showing severely underweight horses. The outlet reports the animals had been deprived of the most basic necessities, and that the two dead primates are being sent to a veterinary forensics laboratory, where necropsies are intended to determine their causes of death.
We Care Wildlife Sanctuary sits at 7688 Park Road 37 in Lakehills, an unincorporated community along Medina Lake roughly 30 miles northwest of San Antonio, according to the same MySA report. The organization is registered as a 501(c)(3) public charity founded by Armando Mendez, with a stated mission of rescuing, rehabilitating and permanently sheltering exotic and domestic animals, per its own website.
Rescue Crews Document Severe Neglect
The rescue effort drew responders from multiple organizations. San Antonio Zoo veterinarians and technicians, volunteer veterinarians, livestock specialists, and American Humane Society responders all assisted, and per the same account, American Humane Society responders documented critical welfare failures and severe neglect throughout the property.
Constable Greg Spengler said threats to animal welfare are taken seriously by his office, the report notes, and the constable's office is investigating the matter fully. The animal cruelty investigation remains ongoing, with no word yet on whether formal criminal charges will follow.
Federal Citations and Permitting Gaps
Beyond the local cruelty investigation, federal game wardens also investigated the property and issued citations related to animal transportation violations, according to the Bandera County Sheriff's Office. The agency's statement also lays out the regulatory framework the sanctuary was expected to follow: Bandera County requires operators to secure a USDA permit before the county will issue local permits for small primates, along with current health certificates for non-native tortoises.
The primate seizure is not the sanctuary's first brush with legal scrutiny over its monkeys. In June 2025, the Seventh District Court of Appeals of Texas reviewed a Bandera County civil lawsuit involving We Care Wildlife Sanctuary and Mendez over an ownership dispute involving capuchin monkeys and related defamation counterclaims, according to court records reviewed by Justia Law.
A History Stretching Back to Florida
The sanctuary's roots predate its Texas operation. Before settling in Bandera County, We Care Wildlife Sanctuary operated in Miami, Florida, where it made national headlines in March 2018 after 36 exotic animals, including lemurs, marmosets, monkeys and tortoises, were stolen following a fake online advertisement, as reported by The Guardian.
In the weeks before this month's raid, the sanctuary's public posture gave few outward signs of the conditions investigators would later describe. Its website carried a notice that it was closed for public tours while renovating its primate enclosure area, and in July, the sanctuary posted a public appeal on Facebook asking for community donations of hay, pig feed, tortoise diet and primate feed from stores across Bandera and the San Antonio area.
What Charges Could Follow
Under Texas Penal Code Section 42.09, failing to provide necessary food, water or care for livestock in one's custody is a Class A misdemeanor carrying up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine for a first offense, escalating to a state jail felony for repeat offenders, according to Texas statute. Separately, intentional cruelty to non-livestock animals under Section 42.092 can be prosecuted as a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, with a mandatory five-year ban on animal ownership upon conviction, per reporting from Saputo Toufexis.
No charges had been announced as of this report. Whether prosecutors will pursue the livestock statute, the non-livestock felony provision, or both remains an open question, as does what the necropsy results on the two dead primates will ultimately show.
