Phil Hoyle of the Animal Pathology Field Unit was kind enough to forward his report on the third Horse mutilation which occured in Devon. The full report follows:
APFU
Sammy, Stallion, Mutilation, 13TH-14TH January 2012.
Whitstone, is the area where the horse Sammy was found mutilated.
Animal:
Welsh/Arab pony, 3 years old:
Mutilation Injuries:
Right eye removed, left eyelid only removed, the tongue was missing and genitals’ removed.
Horse Owner:
Tanya Ingram:
Preliminary Report:
17.45, Tuesday 17th January, 2012:
I was notified by an APFU research assistant that a possible third mutilation attack had taken place in Devon in the South of England.
I immediately phoned the owner to investigate and validate the information received.
The owner of the dead animal is a young lady who lives in Whitstone, near Holsworthy, Devon.
She was very angry at the local vet as he had dismissed the blatant injuries inflicted on her horse Sammy and tried to insinuate the animal had died from an illness.
The injuries to the horse consisted of the right eye removed, left eyelid only removed, the tongue was missing the genitals’ were removed. There was virtually no blood on the animal or surrounding area except a small amount on the carcass and some inside the mouth and again a small amount seeped from the right eye socket when the animal was moved.
The vet said the horse died of colic but the owners saw the horse had defecated before where he died and the vet said the stomach cavity was empty; this does not correspond to symptoms of colic.
The condition of colic in horses is when the stomach twists and cannot allow food to enter the intestine - something doesn’t add up. The injuries to the horse in Devon is supposedly from wild animals, however the owner of the horse had a friend, a cousin with him who is a butcher and he examined the animal and said the cut to the eyelid and ***** is a clean cut and does not correspond to any known animals.
The owner’s father asked for a seconded opinion regarding the cause of death but local vet got very angry and abusive. The father contacted a second vet to do a necropsy but discovered the first vet had disposed of the animal without his permission.
When the Police were initially called to the incident they informed the family not to take any photos as they would deal with it and now are obstructive and refusing to pass copies on to the family. They have now had to file under the Data Protection Act and wait 40 days for the release of the photos of their horse injuries from the Police.
The vet said the horse was ill but did not know how he died or what the he died of, the vet was called out to the scene and the RSPCA and the Police were already on site.
The place Sammy was kept is a 13 acre area of land; I asked the owner if she or other family members noticed any people or cars acting suspiciously days or weeks before the attack was discovered. She said there is always people entering their land and recalled an incident last Bonfire night, 2011 where the family became aware of a figure going through a gate near their location and people driving up to the location and when they are approached by family members they speed off, these incidents could be put down to just ramblers or courting couples as there are no specific incidents to imply as yet a sinister motive.
I asked her if she or other family members had noticed any military vehicles or helicopters around the area just before the mutilation incident. She stated they had not seen any vehicles on the ground but there were a lot of helicopters flying over but this was nothing unusual and they were very high up.
Continued...