A Cedar Road family is wondering if animals in the area are safe after finding that their horse was shot this past weekend.
Cash, a 25-year-old retired farm horse, spent most of his time independently down the bluff away from the barns and house, but didn’t show up for breakfast on Sunday, April 9.
“He comes up every morning for his grain and he didn’t come up this morning, so my dad went to go look for him,” said Jonathan Cairns.
The horse was found with a gunshot wound near its shoulder, and after examining the depth of the bullet hole, “there was nothing we could do,” Cairns said. An RCMP officer who came to investigate put the horse down.
Cairns said the family feels “very violated” that someone came onto their property and shot their horse, seemingly quite deliberately.
“It was not near the road, it was not a mistake on that part of things,” he said. “And with it being a shotgun, it’s not like it was a stray bullet or something, just based on the range.”
He said a couple of years ago there were some people on the property who claimed they’d been given permission to hunt deer there, though they hadn’t been. Even still, Cairns doesn’t think anyone could have mistaken the horse for a deer.
“Now I’m really wondering, what’s going on back there? Are my kids in danger? Are my dogs in danger? It just seems so senseless and pointless…” he said. “The goal [is] just to get it out there so people realize that somebody could do this. Your animals aren’t safe.”
B.C. RCMP confirmed that Ladysmith RCMP is investigating the incident but said police haven’t determined yet exactly what happened or whether there was criminality.
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