 Horse found March 5, 1998, ten miles south of Alamosa, Colorado. Long winter hair was cut cleanly to an eighth of an inch. |
Horses Feared Poisoned in England
The Independent reported in its August 9, 1996 edition that three horses have mysteriously died at one trainer's facility during the past three weeks. The facility is in Derbyshire. It is believed that poison was placed in the drinking water, although laboratory tests are in the process of being conducted to affirm or disprove this theory. A local vet who examined the horses reported that they suffered a "sickening" death. Their throats were paralyzed; they had muscle tremors and sweating and showed colic-like symptoms.
Retired Horse Attacked in Pasture
Scotland - The Scotsman reported in its August 9, 1996 edition that a 12 year old retired Thoroughbred racing horse was discovered in his pasture with a deep cut in the back near the upper left flank. The wound appeared to have been caused by an ax or machete. None of the seven horses pastured with the victim appeared to have been attacked. The horse is expected to make a full recovery.
In the same article, The Scotsman summarized the story of over 30 attacks on horses in the south of England dating from as far back as 1983. Many of them appeared to be sexual in character. Police investigations have produced 27 arrests but nobody was ever charged.
Two Ponies Poisoned in Britain
The Daily Telegraph reported in its October 10, 1996 edition that two ponies were poisoned with apples while in a field near Hull in East Yorkshire. One of the horses, a 13-year-old miniature Shetland, was put down by vets, while the other, a 14-year-old Appaloosa, is surviving on a drip. There are no suspects or known motives for the attacks.
Reward Offered for Persons Who Shot Horse
Illinois - The Peoria Journal Star reported in its August 21, 1996 edition that a $1,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrests of two young men suspected of shooting a horse standing near a stable. The horse, a registered quarter horse gelding, was shot 12 times, perhaps with an airgun. Two young men were seen leaving the scene in a late model blue Ford pickup.
The horse was treated with antibiotics but the vet recommended that the projectiles not be removed surgically. They will eventually work their ways out of the horse, he said.
Horses Burned and Maimed
England - The Daily Mail reported in its January 11,1997 edition that on January 8 a stable housing three horses was set alight, killing one. Days earlier, a 3 foot iron bar was forced down a horse's throat and another horse was slashed and beaten.
The arson attack resulted in the death of a 17-year-old gelding. Two other horses managed to kick their ways out through the stable walls.
On January 2, Harvey, a year-old colt, was attacked 18 miles away in Worksop. A rusty bar was rammed down his throat, smashing his teeth and causing internal damage. Two days later, Noddy, a five-year-old Welsh cob kept in the same field, was slashed with a knife and beaten across the face with a bar. Both are recovering but their owner says the attacks have terrified the whole community.
Attacks on horses reached their height in 1994, with animals maimed in Hampshire, Wilshire, Cornwall, Kent and other southern counties. Police, who at one time speculated there might be an occult motive, never caught those responsible.
Eighteen Rodeo Horses Killed with Rat Poison
Texas - The San Francisco Examiner reported in its February 11, 1997 edition that 18 rodeo horses set to perform in a local rodeo were found poisoned to death in Canton, Texas with a toxin used to kill rodents.
Horse owner Gene Smith found the dead and dying animals on the floor of the Van Zandt County Rodeo Arena about midnight February 7. Smith said strychnine pellets, commonly used to kill gophers, were found scattered on the arena floor.
Arrest Made in Horse Shooting Case
Missouri - The St. Louis, Missouri Post-Dispatch carried a story by Charles Bosworth, Jr. in its February 27, 1997 edition that the shootings of two Tennessee walking horses in their stalls in January was solved by a witness who hadn't realized he had a key piece of information. The witness's information, which surfaced on February 22, led to charges against Kenneth S. Deppe, 36, of St. John, Missouri.
Deppe is charged with two counts of felony criminal damage to property. The charges say Deppe fatally shot a colt, wounded its mother, and fatally shot an emu on January 4. Deppe apparently held a grudge against Fred Shafer, the owner of the emu and the ranch in Pontoon Beach where the horses were boarded. The horses belonged to Pontoon Beach Police Chief Michael Crouch. Deppe had worked for Shafer but left late in 1996 after a long series of disputes.
The break in the case came when a man who believed that Deppe still worked for Shafer mentioned that he had seen Deppe leave Shafer's ranch the night of the killings.
The owner of the 7-month-old colt said he had been devastated by its death. He bought the colt and his mother for a total of $15,000 in September 1996. He had no insurance on the horses.
Deliberate Killing of Pregnant Mare a Mystery
Georgia - The Atlanta Journal carried a story by Will Anderson in its March 3, 1997 edition that a two-ton Belgian draft horse named Susie was found lying motionless on her side, her head suspended from a rope. Someone had slipped into the stable during the night, tied the horse's legs together, hitched one end of a rope around its neck and the other end to a post - and pushed. The helpless mare toppled over and choked to death. Her unborn foal died also.
"It's different than if somebody just came down and shot her," one of the owners said. "Tying her up and hanging her, that's just sick." The owners plan to bury Susie on the property, using a back hoe to dig the grave.
Reward Offered in Horse Injury Cases
England - The Sunday Mail reported on March 16, 1997 a story by Marion Scott that horse owners have put a pounds 5,000 bounty on the heads of sadists who main and kill their animals. In recent months, three horses have been shot dead and another two injured in shootings.
One pony was slashed from head to tail with a machete and two more were attacked with a claw hammer in a field.
There have been attacks elsewhere. A £5000 top-class eventer was brutally stabbed in the throat as it grazed in a field in Larkhall the previous week. Last August, racehorse Fisherman's Quay was attached with a machete as he stood in a field in Dunbar. Groom George Chapman was slashed with a knife when he disturbed a late-night intruder throwing white paint over a Welsh pony at a stud farm in Galashiels last August. And two years ago horse owner Robert Martin suffered two attacks on animals at his Uddingston farm.
De-Tailing Horses
Iowa - Newsweek carried a story on August 4, 1997 that in recent weeks bandits have bobbed the tails of at least seven horses in the Iowa City area. The animals weren't injured, but they're mighty uncomfortable. "It's like someone taking you into the woods, tying your arms and legs and letting the flies go at you," says Nellie Wilson, a local horse-science professor. Owners, who suspect anyone from rogue haircare entrepreneurs to devil worshippers, have offered a $1000 reward for leads. Since it takes years for a horse's tail to grow back, owners are crafting prosthetic fly swatters: they're weaving denim and sheets into the animals' stubbed tails.
Horse and Donkey Shot in Pasture
Washington - The Seattle Times reported a story by Dave Birkland in its April 10, 1997 edition that Lewis County authorities are looking for the gunman who used a high-powered rifle to kill a donkey and a horse in a pasture. "It's so disheartening that someone would do this," said Sherri Guenther, who drives by the pasture each morning on her way to work. The 18-year-old donkey, "Jackson," was a local favorite with children, said Guenther, a relative of the owners. Parents often would stop and let their children feed the animals. "They will be missed," Ms. Guenther added.
Jackson and the horse, a 4-year-old Appaloosa, were found dead Tuesday morning. They apparently had been shot between 9 and 10pm on Monday. A neighbor recalled hearing shots about that time. Bullet casings were found along the highway.
The owner could think of no one nor any reason anyone would want to shoot his animals. A third animal in the pasture, a quarter horse, apparently was frightened by the gunfire and bruised its head when it ran into a tree. The owners are offering a reward for information leading to the killer or killers and Lewis County Crime Stoppers is offering a $250 reward.
Trial Begins in Horse Assault Case
Wisconsin - The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel carried a story on April 21, 1997 that jury selection was scheduled to begin fora rural Weyauwega man accused of sexually assaulting a pregnant mare. A trial for Sterling Rachwal, 33, has been moved to Oconto County because of extensive pretrial publicity and safety concerns. A judge earlier ordered that an anonymous jury be selected to hear the case to prevent animal rights groups from contacting them.
He is charged with burglary, mistreatment of an animal, criminal damage to property and bail jumping in the June 1 incident in the rural Waupaca County town of Mukwa. Rachwal was arrested after a couple, who lived next door to Rachwal's parents, reported that their pregnant Arabian mare had been sexually assaulted. The horse survived the attack.
At the time of the incident, Rachwal was free on a signature bond stemming from a case in Monroe County, where he was convicted of sexually assaulting three horses at farms in the Tomah area in 1993. Those horses were destroyed because of their injuries. That conviction was overturned by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1995 and Rachwal was awaiting a new trial.
Rachwal has been convicted of mistreating horses, resulting in the deaths of several, numerous times in Waupaca County in 1982, 1984 and 1988.
Horse in Pasture Attacked with Knife
England - The Guardian carried a story by Geoffrey Gibbson May 30, 1997 about a knife assault on a horse in a Sussex field earlier in the week. Police believe the attacker may have struck after watching an episode of a TV drama.
Touching Evil, shown on ITV stations on Tuesday evening, featured a police investigation into a series of barbaric attacks on horses in Britain, America and Japan. The following morning a 20-year-old mare on a farm near Rye in East Sussex was found with a five-inch-long knife wound to her genitals.
The injured mare was discovered when her owner came to groom her. Five other horses in the same field were untouched. The wound required 10 stitches to close.
A spokesman for the TV programme said, "The programme did not depict an attack on a horse - it reported the fact. As far as I was aware there was no specific link to sexual attacks on horses in the programme. I hope what we showed on screen did not encourage somebody to go out and do that to a horse."
This assault is the second serious attack on a horse in the county this month. Two weeks ago, a 25-year-old hunter called Master Lexicon was injured in his stables near Hailsham when a rusty six-inch nail was driven up through his chin.
Mare One Year After Attack
England - The Daily Telegraph carried a story by John Carey on May 31, 1997 about Shadow, a mare who was brutally attacked one year ago. The mare was attacked while sleeping in her stall and left to bleed to death. She was found hours later and miraculously has not only survived but is almost fully recovered.
Shadow's owner, Denise Croucher, recalled those events: "Whoever attacked her - it seems likely that there was more than one person involved - unlocked the stable doors, went in and attacked Shadow with some kind of long, sharp instrument. They slashed her rear and down her shoulder and sliced open her abdomen, puncturing her lung. Then they abandoned her. They even took time to rebolt the stable door on their way out."
Shadow underwent a four-hour operation, including replacing eight litres of blood, and she spent several days in intensive care. "It was touch and go for two or three days," says Denise. "Then she started to perk up."Nevertheless, it was not until last September that she could be ridden again.
Today she is "90 percent fit and very lively - but she has a permanent shadow on her lung and we still have to keep a careful watch for any problems." The attack has cost Denise dearly, both emotionally and financially. Petplan,her insurance company, paid out £2500 - the maximum that her policy covered for a single incident - but the total bill for Shadow's treatment came to double that and she has had to take out a £2000 loan to pay it.
Two Sentenced in Barn Arson that Killed 19 Horses
Maine - The Bangor Daily News carried a story on August 21, 1997 about two men who were linked to a fire that killed 19 horses at Stetson's Deseo Farm who were sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison.
The two men, both 20, were present at Jan Hartwell's Deseo horse barn last November 1 when one of them climbed up to the hayloft and droppeda lit matchbook.
Justice John R. Atwood said the crimes were "not just senseless, but wildly reckless." He called the fire "a case of first impression," meaning that he had no precedent in Maine law with which to guide his sentence. Simple structure fires may yield sentences as low as nine months in prison. Fires at apartment buildings that endanger human life can get more than 30 years. But nothing in Maine law suggests an appropriate sentence for an arson fire that involves the killing of animals on a large scale.
Two Horses Shot
Michigan - The Detroit News carried a story on November 19, 1997 about the shooting of two horses:
Oxford police have not determined if the shootings of two horses ata farm on Barber Road was a hunting related accident or a malicious act.
One of the horses, a pregnant mare, was killed. The second was being treated for its injury.
Horse Slaughtered in its Field
Florida - The Orlando Sentinel carried a story by Henry Pierson on November 20, 1997 about the slaughter of a pet horse in its field:
Handfuls of ground corn appear to have lured a quarter horse to its death at the hands of rustlers who wanted its meat.
Police on Wednesday found the remains of Peeker, a friendly gelding that probably nuzzled the hands that tied it by the neck to a scrub oak in a pasture near Orlando International Airport.
Those same hands slashed its windpipe, leaving the frightened 13-year-old pet to run around and around the sapling until collapsing from loss of blood. That's when the rustlers probably butchered the animal alive, police said.
The insulated wire cable lashing the horse to the oak "wore into the tree, it ran around ... so much," Officer Mike Sebag said. "So it died a long, painful death."
The butchering, in a pasture bordered by South Orange Avenue and Tradeport Drive, was the first police and deputy sheriffs in several Central Florida counties could remember. Cows still get rustled occasionally.
Peeker's killers likely used a knife with a heavy, sharp blade. The cuts ranged from slices to hacking. After removing the right front quarter, they tumbled it hoof and all into a nearby canal.
Police officers said the cuts looked like the work of someone with experience. Between 100 and 200 pounds of tenderloin, rump steaks and hocks were missing. Rarely eaten in the United States, horse meat is described as tougher but sweeter than beef.
Lt. Bill Wood said the rustlers probably brought an ice chest with them because they left no blood trail from the slaughtering ground.
But gallons of blood had stained a 3-foot-wide swath around the sapling. A bag of ground corn lay nearby. About 100 mixed-breed Brahman cows and about 20 horses graze on the 700 acres owned by the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority. Wranglers working the pasture said other animals probably ran away, but Peeker was used to being ridden every day.
Jeannie Smith, the horse's owner, could not be reached. She left the pasture shortly after identifying her brown horse with the white blaze on her forehead. Another of her horses died a few years ago when it strayed into traffic on South Orange Avenue. Peeker was last seen alive Tuesday. Standing 100 feet from the carcass, rancher Sonya Newton shook her head in disgust.
"You could almost understand it if it was a cow. Fine, people have to eat. But a horse?" Newton said. "They ought to treat it just like murder. Just like the old days."
One of the wranglers nodded, saying, "Hang 'em."
Horse butchery in Florida
Horse Butchered in Pasture
Florida - The Orlando Sentinel carried a story by Henry Pierson Curtis on November 28, 1997 about the slaughter for meat of a quarter horse in his own pasture.
Last week's butchering of a quarter horse by rustlers in Taft may be the only crime of its kind in Florida - and possibly in the United States.
Spokesmen for national organizations tracking cruelty to animals as well as state and local law enforcements agencies could not remember a similar crime anywhere.
"This is not anything that we have seen before," said Peter Paris, a spokesman in New York City for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "We hope this is an isolated incident."
The carcass of Peeker, a 13-year-old saddle horse, was found Nov. 19 in a pasture near Orlando International Airport. Rustlers had lured it with handfuls of ground corn. They tied it by the neck to a scrub oak and slashed its windpipe.
The horse ran around the tree until it dropped from loss of blood. That's when the rustlers began butchering it, Orlando police said.
"They knew what they were doing," Officer Mike Sebag said. "There were probably two of them because of the pure weight of hauling off the meat."
Investigators speculate the rustlers intended to sell the meat or eat it.
The killing of Peeker appeared to be more methodical to investigators than the occasional butchering of rustled cattle on ranches across Central Florida. Rustlers typically shoot the cows and dismember them with chainsaws. Three to four cows a year are taken that way in Orange County, said sheriff's Cmdr. Ernie Kelley.
The rustlers bled the horse to death in what several investigators said was a crude approximation of the way cows, pigs and other animals are killed at slaughterhouses. Between 100 and 200 pounds of tenderloin and the right rear haunch, the most tender cuts of meat, were taken, police said.
"It sounds like someone who really was going after it for the meat,"Paris said. "I assume it was probably someone who had butchered a horse before."
Dr. Michael Slayter at the state Division of Animal Industry Diagnostic Laboratory in Kissimmee said a cut on the horse's neck likely severed the jugular vein and hastened its death.
The slashing of the windpipe may have been intended to do the same thing and inadvertently kept the horse from whinnying as it died, he said.
"I seriously doubt that someone was doing that to prevent the horse from making noise," Slayter said.
No state or national agency serves as a clearing house for information about cruelty to animals. The absence hinders investigators from quickly learning whether a case in Florida matches cases anywhere else.
But Gary Bain, secretary of the Florida Agricultural Crimes Intelligence Unit, said word of a previous case of a horse butchered for its meat would have reached the statewide association of ranch and grove crime investigators.
No cases of butchered horses have been reported to the American Humane Association or the Humane Society of the United States.
Orlando police said last week's killing provoked public outrage in Taft, where the horse was in a pasture at South Orange Avenue and Tradeport Drive. Residents in the area remembered seeing the friendly horse coming to thefence or being ridden daily by its owner, Sebag and others said.
Pasturing farm animals, especially those raised as pets, near busy highwayscan be unwise. They become "targets for people looking for a quick way to fill the freezer up," said Dean Humfleet, senior investigator for the Humane Society of Orlando SPCA of Central Florida.
Jeannie Smith, the horse's owner, could not be reached.
Last year, 110,000 horses were killed in four US slaughterhouses and shipped to Europe and Asia for human consumption. Some of those undoubtedly were stolen, said Marc Paulhus, head of horse protection for the Humane Society of the United States.
The center of the state's horse industry is Marion County, where Deputy Jay Perrett has investigated animal abuse for 29 years.
Hearing how handfuls of corn lured Peeker to its death, Perrett said,"What's so bad about this is because this horse learned to trust people,this horse died."
Whom to call: A $1000 reward is being offered by CrimeLine, 407-423-TIPS, for information leading to the arrest of the rustlers. They facecharges of felony cruelty to animals, police said.
Prosecution of Horse-Abusing Teen
Michigan - The Detroit News carried a story on December 22, 1997 about the prosecution of a teenager who killed a horse:
A youth who killed one horse and wounded another is scheduled to havea mental examination to support his contention that he was drunk at the time of the Nov. 17 shootings. James Leonard Bushey, 19, was ordered held under $35,000 bond by Oakland Circuit Judge Alice Gilbert while he undergoes the examination at the Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Ypsilanti. A 16-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to killing and torturing an animal. He faces sentencing Jan. 8 in Oakland Probate Court.
Another SLV Horse Mutilation - March 1998Another San Luis Valley Horse Mutilation
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 08:23:30 -7
Subject: Another San Luis Valley Horse Mutilation
A second horse has been found dead and disfigured south of Alamosa, Colorado. This makes three, rare winter-month unusual animal deaths that have been reported in the San Luis Valley since November 30,1997. The animal was found near the Rio Grande River, 10 miles south of Alamosa, CO.
The six year-old white gelding, called by its owner, "the head of the herd" (16 horses) was discovered yesterday, a mile and a half from the herd, laying on its left side and missing the flesh around the left mandible; its genitalia and right ear. The ear was removed in a three-inch diameter circle. The horse also had a "baseball-sized hole in the brisket," and the rancher suspects that the animal's heart was removed. The rancher, an avid hunter and tracker, noted the horses winter coat exhibited "obvious sign" of a knife-type instrument being used. Individual hairs appeared cleanly cut, as if by a scalple or very sharp knife.
There were no tracks found around the animal-not even the gelding's own tracks. It was discovered laying in "fluffy alkali" which shows tracks very well. "You could throw a pea out there and see it," the rancher noted. Upon discovery by the ranchers 19 year-old son, "50 eagles were flying around like swallows." The eagles showed great interest in the carcass and were seen scavenging the horse with several crows. This huge number of eagles in one area is highly unusual.
Horse Shot with BB Gun
Virginia - The Washington Post carried a story on September 17, 1998 by Jean Mack about a horse shot with a BB gun:
The following were among animal cases received recently by the Fairfax County Department of Animal Control. For more information, call 703 830 3310.
HARRIVAN LANE, 2900 block, Aug. 28. Animal Control was called to assist with an injured horse and discovered four BB pellets in the animal's body. Investigation revealed that a neighbor was responsible. The neighbor was ordered to relinquish the BB gun, pay the veterinarian bill and participate in counseling.
Violence to Humans May Stem from Cruelty to Animals
Washington - The Seattle Post Intelligencer carried an editorial on September 19, 1998 by Georgia Lockwood about the relationship between violence to humans and cruelty to animals:
Jadamac Sir Raff was rescued from starvation at age 19 to become a lively and beautiful lesson horse for children and a friend to his owner. He was the favorite of neighbors who watched his graceful, carefree games with the other horses in the summer pasture.
Raff was 23 when an unknown person forced inward the chained, weed covered, never used gate and turned him and his band of four companions out onto 55 mph Highway 3, busy with night time pre July 4th traffic.
This was just one of several recent Kitsap cases relating to horses, but countrywide domestic animals of all types are neglectedor maliciously injured, tortured, or killed. According to Clifford J. Sherryin his reference handbook on animal rights, "Few humans who commit cruelty to animals are ever prosecuted. The few that are usually receive minimumpenalties."
Immanuel Kant said, "We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." The connection between violence to animals and violence topeople is becoming increasingly clear. Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo,"Son of Sam" killer David Berkowitz, cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer and Richard Allen Davis, the murderer of Polly Klaas, all had early histories of violence to animals. Domestic violence victims frequently report abuse of pets. Harming or threatening to harm a beloved pet is an excellent way for a violent abuser to keep his human victims in line.
Randall Lockwood, psychologist for the Humane Society of the United States, wrote that, "Animal abuse by any member of the family, whether parent or child, often means child abuse is going on too." Not every child who pulls the cat's tail is a potential criminal, but a child who exhibits a pattern of serious animal abuse is in trouble and needs help.
While turning horses loose on a public highway is not direct, "hands on" torture or mutilation, it clearly indicates a disregard for life, animal or human. The potential for injury and death is enormous. How would your vehicle stand up to impact at high speed with a 1,200 pound animal?
What happened to Raff and his four companions? A luckless driver was traveling along minding his own business when "eyes appeared out of nowhere. It was like a dream. The horses were running at me in the oncoming lane. I hit the brakes, but my truck started to veer into the other lane, so I had to take my foot off the brake and commit to whatever was in my own lane rather than have a head on collision." A Washington State trooper said Raff must have cut in front of the truck at some point. On impact,the grill of the pickup truck caved in so far that the engine no longer ran.
I try now to believe Raff gallops daily up some ancestral dune and into the blue sky. I try to hold that picture against the image of his last hours and minutes as he lay in the chaos with panting breath and clenched teeth, struggling vainly as friends restrained his attempts to rise on his broken back legs. Animal Control was prompt and sympathetic but unprepared to euthanize a large animal. For fear of a bullet ricocheting on the pavement, the State Patrol officers were understandably unwilling to shoot him. It was difficult to locate a veterinarian in the middle ofthe night. We waited a long time, and his heart was strong and great to the last. When the merciful needle came, I laid my head on my gentle Arabian friend's muzzle and listened to his breathing until it stopped. He was twice over the victim of human cruelty.
Losing Raff in this way has been one of the saddest events ofmy life, but it is miraculous that a much worse disaster did not occur. If the driver's reflexes had been less quick, he would have hit head on a woman and three children in a small car. He feels terrible about the horse, but he made the right choice in the nightmare thrust upon him. No drivers were injured, and no other lives were lost.
If you hear someone bragging about his malicious treatment of animals; if you know anyone who habitually engages in cruelty to animals, if you have information about Raff's death or any other such deliberate act of destruction, do not be silent because it's "just an animal." You could be preventing much worse future crimes; you could be saving yourself or someone you love.
Reward Offered for Shooting of Horses
Canada - The Canada NewsWire carried a story on December 16, 1998 about a reward for information leading to the apprehension of persons who shot two horses:
The Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the personor persons responsible for the shooting of two horses at the Greenwinds Farms stables in the Whitchurch Stouffville area, north of Toronto, earlier this week.
The reward, in the amount of $10,000, is being offered by the OSPCA in response to this "brutal and senseless, unprovoked act of violence against a defenceless animal," said Vicky Earle, Chief Executive Officer of the OSPCA.
The two horses, a stallion named Chance and a gelding named Guinness Irish Ale, were gunned down while standing in their stalls on Monday evening. Another 20 horses were in the stables. Chance was shot between the eyes, while Guinness Irish Ale was shot in the face. A trainer at the stables made the gruesome discovery on Tuesday morning. The animals were transported to the University of Guelph Animal Hospital, where veterinarians performed emergency surgery. Unfortunately, the animals were unable to recover from their injuries and they were relieved of their suffering by lethal injection.
Horse Shot
Pennsylvania - The Pittsburgh Post Gazette carried a story on December 18, 1998 about a horse that appeared to have been deliberately shot:
State police in Greensburg believe that someone shot an Arabian horse, wounding the animal.
Cindy Rowe told police the horse was shot sometime yesterday at the Kovalish Farm.
The horse suffered an injury to the right shoulder. Police have no suspects.
Shrine Features Effigies of Stabbed Horses
Tennessee - The Memphis Commercial Appeal carried a story on December 23, 1998 by The Associated Press about the discovery of a weird shrine:
A small shrine that includes carvings and effigies of apparently stabbed horses is not believed to be related to a series of recent horse stabbings, police say.
Barling police spokesman Victoria Harris said the shrine in Crawford County is being investigated, but "at this point in time, it doesn't seem to be part of our horse attacks."
Two horses were killed and a dozen injured in the attacks that began around Thanksgiving and peaked Dec. 5 in the Barling area.
The shrine, in a rural area near Union town, was reported to the Sebastian County sheriff's office late Saturday by two sets of hunters. Barling sent officers to the site Sunday.
Police found a cross made of two pine logs about 8 feet tall, Harris said. Etched into the wood was a horse's head with a knife sticking out of the forehead and tears flowing from its eyes.
A trail of hoofprints was carved in the cross and two candles were attached to the upright post of the cross, she said.
Dangling from the cross timber was a toy size effigy of a horse, made of pine needles held together with wire. It had a small splinter of wood fashioned to look like a knife protruding from its chest, Harris said.
In the horse attacks near Barling, most horses were stabbed or slashed - often repeatedly - in the head or neck. At least one horse was slashed across the side.
Idaho horse attacked - (Jan 21, 1999) A Lewsiton, Idaho reader reports on a horse she sold, an expensive Arabian gelding.
The gelding was the victim of a vandal who apparently wanted tail hair (to sell) but hacked off half the gelding's tail bone.
Two horses shot - (Jan 21) Two thoroughbred horses were found shot in the head at a Stouffville (Canada) stable yesterday morning, the second such incident in a month.
Police have no motive for either shooting.
A nine year old grey mare, owned by a 19-year-old woman, is dead and a five year old bay gelding is in critical but stable condition at the University of Guelph Animal Hospital.
Both horses had been shot in the head at close range some time during the night.
In the first incident, two thoroughbred jumping horses were shot in the head as they slept in their stalls, a move the owner of one of the horses said was 'the act of a maniac.'
Both horses had been shot once in the face and were so badly injured they had to be put down.
The Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the Dec. 14 attack on Val de Chance,a seven-year-old stallion, who was shot between the eyes, and Guinness Irish Ale, a nine year old gelding.
Delaware - The Associated Press carried a story on February 12, 1999 about a man who was arrested for shooting a horse:
New Castle County police said Friday they arrested a man for shooting a horse.
The alleged shooting occurred last Saturday, Feb. 6. According to police, officers responded to a report of animal cruelty in Centreville, learning that a horse named "Fiesta" had been injured by a gunshot wound to the chest.
The extent of the horse's injuries were not provided by police.
Police have charged Jeffrey Pitts, 21, of Newark, with one count of felony cruelty to an animal and possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony. He was released on $30,000 bail.
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