Three horses shot to death, one shot over 50 times Breaks, VA (US) Incident Date: Thursday, Jan 25, 2007 County: Dickenson Local Map: available Disposition: Alleged Charges: Misdemeanor, Felony CTA Alleged: » Michael Damron » Jacob Ratliff Case Updates: 4 update(s) available

Case ID: 10686 Classification: Shooting Animal: horse View more cases in VA (US) Drugs or alcohol involved Login to Watch this Case

Two Eastern Kentucky teenagers were in jail on Jan 31, accused of killing three horses and wounding several more of the animals, which are used for trail rides at a park on the Kentucky-Virginia state line.

Police told the Lexington Herald-Leader on Jan 31 that one of the dead horses was shot more than 50 times and that the suspects chased the horses for about seven miles after the shooting began.

The horses were grazing on a strip mine when the 17-year-old boys started shooting at them on the afternoon of Jan. 25, Pike County Chief Deputy Sheriff Melvin Sayers said. One of the boys turned 18 three days later.

Trish Hayes of Virginia owns the animals and Breaks Stable in Breaks, Va. They are used for rides at Breaks Interstate Park. She said she hoped the boys would be prosecuted as adults.

The boys were charged with criminal mischief and cruelty to animals and were being held in the Breathitt County Juvenile Detention Center. A hearing was scheduled for todayin Pike County.

The teens told Sayers and Detective Richard Ray that they drove to the site to shoot rabbits.

"But one of the juveniles jumped out and said, 'I don't like these horses,'" Sayers told the newspaper, "and they just went to shooting horses."

The other horses fled, but the boys apparently went back to their truck and chased the horses across the strip mine, officials said.

Drugs might have been involved, Sayers said.

"They said they took a couple of pills, but didn't know what kind," he said. "But one of these kids had a 3.4 grade-point average, so you're not dealing with little dummies."

Area residents identified both the suspects and the truck, Sayers said.

Ray said one of the suspects said he had once been injured by a horse and disliked the animals.

The boys told police they had two .22-caliber rifles and a .22-caliber pistol. One of the horses was shot six times but survived, Hayes said.

She said she released most of the horses on the mountaintop strip mine next to her father's home in October after the riding season ended.

The horses rarely strayed from the strip mine even though there are no fences, Hayes said.

"You've got miles and miles of flat land where these horses graze and just stay," she said.

"When they're up there, they look like a band of wild horses, but when you drive up, they'll come right up to your window."

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References

	Cincinnati Post - Feb 1, 2007
	Lexington Herald - Feb 1, 2007

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