Owner finds body of beloved horse tied to fence, legs bound
CRAIG, Colo. -- The owner of a 16-year-old mare was sickened when he came across his horse, Cricket, dead in his pasture with his legs bound, CBS Denver reports.
Glen Gariner said Cricket's hind legs were bound together and tied to a fence. He told CBS Denver he had no idea what happened or why someone would hurt his horse.
"I was just sickened," Gariner said. "Totally sickening. It's not right. Who would do something so terrible to another living thing?"
Gary Nichols, the investigator assigned to the case, told CBS Denver the horse's is the most abnormal case of animal abuse he has seen in his 15 years as an investigator for Moffat County Sheriff's Office.
Gariner said he had been working long hours at a local coal mine and didn't notice something was wrong in the pasture until he saw Cricket laying down, something he said was unusual.
The Moffat County Sheriff's Office has not established any suspects and is conducting an investigation.
"Someone had to have put the rope around the horse's rear hocks," Nichols said. "It wasn't accidental where the horse got tangled up in the rope. It was a deliberate act."
The culprit faces charges of animal cruelty, according to Nichols.
Gariner originally offered a $500 cash reward, but since the news of this story broke, nearly $2,000 has been raised and added to the reward as the community searchers for answers.