Runaway Horse Struck, Killed By Tractor Trailer After Escaping From LI Ranch; 2 Other Horses Found Safe
CENTER MORICHES, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- One horse is dead after escaping with two other horses from a ranch on Long Island.
The three horses ran off after somebody deliberately let them out of their stalls at the Double "D" Bar Ranch in Manorville on Thursday morning, ranch owner Richard Devoe told 1010 WINS.
The ranch is a not-for-profit rescue for hundreds of abused or abandoned farm animals, CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff reported.
"One pen was closed. I didn't see the horses, so I checked them out. They weren't there," Devoe said. "Somebody evidently had opened the gate, took the chain off it, opened it, let the horses out and reclosed it."
"They can't get out, open and latch it themselves. Someone had to have done it," Gaye Devoe added.
One of the horses, Tucker, was standing in the middle of Sunrise Highway in Center Moriches around 2:50 a.m. when it was struck and killed by a tractor trailer.
The 60-year-old driver of the tractor trailer remained on the scene, police said. He was not injured.
The two other horses, Chaos and Karma, were eventually found up the road from the ranch. Devoe said the animals, who do not belong to him, were trying to find their way back.
"I was doing somebody a favor by keeping them here for a short period of time so they could restall them somewhere," Devoe said.
That favor was for horse owner Rachel Stanevich, who is now heartbroken. She boarded all three horses at the Manorville ranch after a fire destroyed her home and barn.
"He was a great rider, he was a gentle giant, you couldn't ask for a better personality in a horse ever," Stanevich told Gusoff.
Ranch owners say vandals and thieves have struck the ranch before; some of their ranch hands fulfill court-ordered community service work there.
"Some of them don't complete their time, some give us hard times, and we never know who it can be," Gaye Devoe said.
As Gusoff reported, the ranch used to have surveillance cameras, but someone stole them.
The investigation is ongoing.
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