A Vancouver Island family is grieving a beloved horse, after they say someone shot the animal on their property over the weekend.
Cash, a “super friendly” retired 25-year-old farm horse had been a staple on the property near Nanaimo, B.C., for nearly two decades, according to owner Jonathan Cairns.
“He’s always loved people … Every morning he comes up and if you don’t have your grain for him on time he’ll stomp around and toss his bowl around waiting for it,” he said.
But that changed Sunday morning.
“He didn’t come up for his grain that morning. My dad brought his grain out and he wasn’t up there, which was extremely unusual,” he said.
“And he went over and looked and as soon as he went around the corner and looked down the hill he could see him laying there.”
The family found Cash with a wound the size of a baseball on his leg, and was forced to put him down.
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Cairns said he believes the horse was shot was shot with a shotgun.
“And then he just left him there to suffer, lay there for hours in agony?” Cairns said.
“It’s just pointless and senseless and it makes no sense.”
Cairns said the family has occasionally had trespassers or hunters on the property, but has never heard of anything of this nature happening in the area.
He added that it would be nearly impossible to mistake the horse for a deer or a bear.
Ladysmith RCMP is investigating the incident, but Cairns said he’s not hopeful anyone will be brought to justice for the shooting.
What’s more, he said he’s fearful someone else could get hurt.
“It’s pretty scary knowing that somebody is around here — what are they doing, shooting anything that moves? Are my kids safe? Are my dogs safe?”
The family is urging whoever is responsible for the incident to turn themselves in to police.
In the meantime, Cairns said he will be investing in trail cameras to try and catch an image of anyone trespassing on the property.
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