SPRINGERVILLE, Ariz. — Federal officials are investigating after more than a dozen horses were found murdered in a national forest.
The U.S. Forest Service said in a news release on Friday that the horses were found in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests. While the agency confirmed it was investigating the deaths, it said it could not offer any specifics or details.
Fourteen horses were found with gunshots to the abdomen, face and between their eyes, KTVK reported.
Amelia Perrin, with the nonprofit group the American Wild Horse Campaign, told The Arizona Republic that by Sunday the death toll had risen to 15 horses shot and killed, with 20 others missing and presumed dead.
“The person or persons responsible for this act of premeditated, vicious animal cruelty poses a very real danger to people and animals,” Scott Beckstead, director of campaigns and equine welfare specialist at the Center for a Humane Economy, told KTVK. “We hope to see swift and aggressive action by federal, state and local law enforcement partners to apprehend the sadistic killer who committed these heinous acts and bring them to justice.”
The horses themselves have been at the center of a legal battle between the U.S. Forest Service, which considers the animals stray livestock, and advocates for the horses, which want the animals treated like the deer, elk and other animals in the area, KNXV reported. Recently, a court ruled in favor of the U.S. Forest Service, which has begun to round up the horses to sell them at auction.
“They are not protected by federal government — not protected by state laws so it’s sickening that someone can just come here and kill them,” Simone Netherlands, with the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, told KTVK. “This atrocity of the shooting just shows how much hate there is for these horses. It’s incomprehensible.”
Three animal advocacy organizations — the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, the American Wild Horse Campaign and Animal Wellness Action — have pledged a combined $25,000 as a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killers, The Arizona Republic reported.
A $20,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever killed five horses in Nevada last year, The Associated Press reported. Officials did not say whether the Nevada case could be linked to the deaths in Arizona. Those horses were found Nov. 16 in Jakes Valley.
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