Cornwall’s fear after ritual like slaughter of horses

We are highlighting this article not for its sensationalism, but to help warn local horse owners to be extra vigilant. Horses are being killed and bodies hacked. The reasons listed are speculative but hopefully the bizarre nature of the incidents and related reporting will raise awareness and save lives.

Cross-posted from The Sun

Written by SHARON HENDRY

AN ill wind whistles through the Cornish coastline as darkness descends upon the Duchy.

For the past week, an ominous shadow has loomed large over the usually laid-back local community, who now fear a Satanic killer could be in their midst.

Their fears were sparked last Saturday after a horse was mutilated in the peaceful town of Stithians, near Falmouth.

Friesian stallion Erik had his stomach slit, an eye gouged out, teeth smashed and his genitalia hacked off. Owner Dawn Jewell, 27, found him dead in the field near her home.

Dawn, a mum-of-three, said: “It’s sick. Who could do this to an animal that has never harmed anyone? He was my baby, my best friend.

“He was a big strong horse — they must have used something to subdue him.”

It is thought Erik was slaughtered during the night of January 7. Chillingly, that was St Winebald’s Day — an event dedicated to animal or human sacrifice by Satanists.

And while dozens of police officers with sniffer dogs scoured the field where the killing took place, another local revealed how her horse was killed in the same way during a full moon in January five years ago.

Rosemary Penn, a competition horse breeder from nearby Bodmin, found her beloved rescued Shetland gelding Douglas mutilated. The three-year-old was left to die with his eyes gouged out and genitalia removed.

Rosemary, 55, said: “He was opened up like a casket. The other horses were completely traumatised — they witnessed it. Read full story >>

Michigan man sentenced for killing two horses

CBS News Detroit reports via the Associated press:

Dennis Finkler (Booking Photo)

GRAND HAVEN (AP) – A western Michigan man who authorities say slit the throats of two horses belonging to his wife and a stable owner as retribution for his belief that the two were having an affair has been sentenced to 60 days on an electronic tether.

The Grand Rapids Press reported Tuesday that an Ottawa County Circuit Court judge in Grand Haven also sentenced 47-year-old Dennis Finkler to two years’ probation, about $20,000 in restitution and fines and community service.

Finkler of Conklin pleaded no contest in May to torturing and killing an animal and malicious destruction of property.

Authorities said that on Feb. 11 Finkler argued with his wife at the stable owner’s property in Jamestown Township, about 10 miles southwest of Grand Rapids. The horses were killed the next day.

© The Associated Press

Hatred fueled killing of eight horses

Cross-posted from The Columbus Dispatch

Written by GINGER CASEY

Elvis is dead. So are Barney, Floyd, Princess, Buddy, Love, Bella and Ethel. They died on Easter, burned to death in their barn in southern Ohio, when someone set the building on fire after spray painting messages to their owner on the outside.

On a day when many were contemplating everlasting life and candy-bearing bunnies, Brent Whitehouse, who lives with his mother on a farm above the county fairgrounds in McConnelsville, woke to see a flickering orange glow coming from outside. Moments later he was tearing frantically at the door of his barn as flames burst through the roof. He could hear his horses screaming inside but could not get the door open.

The fire was so intense, a tractor inside the barn melted. But what was left on the building, still smoldering the following day, was the remnants of spray paint and its searing message: “ Faggots are freaks,” and, “Burn in hell.”

The Quarter horses Whitehouse raised were like children to him. He says he cannot understand why anyone could kill such innocent creatures. Well, whoever did it obviously thought they were making a point about Whitehouse’s sexual orientation. That because of who they thought he was, his horses deserved to die, shrieking in panic and pain as the flames ran through the barn. That because they thought Whitehouse is gay, his horses should be killed to make a statement about homosexuals.

Buddy was only a week old, standing on spidery, wobbly legs. Love was full with her own foal, due any moment.

The capacity for cruelty of this magnitude in the heartland of America should be a wake-up call for anyone who cares about the welfare of animals and the rights of all of us to love whomever we want. Killing these horses most assuredly killed whatever shred of decency might have been in the heart of the person or people who tossed the match. And now that they have murdered these beautiful animals, who knows where they’ll go next? Maybe Reno, Nev., where a couple of guys out drinking shot up a group of 10 wild Mustang horses with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle for kicks a couple of years ago. Or Laramie, Wyo., where 21-year-old Matthew Shepard was viciously beaten, tied to a fence and left to die because he was gay. Continue reading >>