Miniature horse fatally shot with pellet gun Newberg, OR (US) Incident Date: Wednesday, Jun 20, 2007 County: Yamhill Local Map: available Disposition: Open Suspect(s) Unknown - We need your help!

Case ID: 11648 Classification: Shooting Animal: horse View more cases in OR (US) Login to Watch this Case

Michelle Michelsen's 11-year-old daughter had planned to take her miniature horses to Seattle this weekend for a show. But a tragic incident has changed all that.

One of the horses, 10-year-old Shooter, was found dead in his Chehalem Mountain pasture Wednesday morning with shards of a pellet gun round in his brain.

A companion, the 8-year-old mare Stormy, was later found with a grazing wound to the chin, presumably inflicted by the same close-range weapon. A third miniature, Bo Dandy, was discovered quivering and cowering in a corner of the pasture.

When a Yamhill County sheriff's deputy visited the scene later in the day, he asked Michelsen if she knew of anyone angry with her or her family. Her affirmative response raised the case to a new and ominous level, according to county law enforcement personnel.

It turns out people along this stretch of Bald Peak Road, northwest of Newberg, have been feuding bitterly over a neighbor's Measure 37 claim, leading to at least one threat. That raised the specter this could be more than a case of mindless vandalism and animal cruelty.

Some evidence has already been sent to the state crime lab, and more could well follow, as investigators were continuing to scour the crime scene at 18304 N.E. Bald Peak Road.

"We're pulling out all the stops to find out who did this," said Sheriff's Capt. Ken Summers.

Summers said investigators are also poring over the now-voluminous public record on a Measure 37 case involving John Kroo, who wants to develop a 12-lot subdivision, over Michelsen's vehement objection, on adjoining property at 18108 N.E. Bald Peak Road.

"We're looking at public records regarding Measure 37 claims in the area to see who falls on what side and how heated this may have become," he said. "We're trying to determine if there was any motivation from a Measure 37 standpoint."

The News-Register left a voicemail for Kroo on Friday morning, seeking comment, but he did not return it.

Michelsen has known Kroo since she was 9. She said "he was like a father" to her, and she had been leasing property from him to provide additional space for her horses.

The relationship began to sour when he filed a Measure 37 claim last year, seeking to develop 31 acres of farmland he's owned since 1965, which predates all land-use regulations in Oregon. And neighbors quickly began choosing up sides, fueling hard feelings all around.

The claim won approval from the county commissioners on a 2-1 vote, with Leslie Lewis and Kathy George prevailing over Mary Stern - a longstanding pattern with Measure 37 subdivision proposals. Kroo subsequently became one of the first Measure 37 claimants to follow through with submission of a formal subdivision plan with the Yamhill County Planning Commission.

Before Measure 37 changed everything, Michelsen said, "He told me he did not want to see anybody develop the land. I said, 'That's great. I'm a country girl, and I want the country to be the country.'"

In keeping with that, she testified in opposition at the planning commission hearing, as did several other neighbors. They lost, but appealed to the county commissioners, where they got no help.

Then, on June 13, only a week before the shooting, Michelsen and her mother, Bev Davis, joined neighbor Karol Susan Welch in taking the case to a whole new level - the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.

Before she opted to take the case to LUBA, which could lead to a lengthy delay, Michelsen said she got a letter from Kroo warning there could be "consequences" if she continued to throw up legal roadblocks. She told the News-Register she turned the letter over to law enforcement officials.

She said she decided not to pursue the threat issue further, however, after the county sent Kroo a letter warning him against engaging in any direct contact with her with regard to their land-use dispute.

Given that backdrop - and the fact the horses were grazing in a remote pasture, unlikely to attract the attention of outsiders and requiring the perpetrator to climb over a fence to gain access - the Measure 37 fracas quickly came to her mind when she discovered the horses had been shot.

The family's initial assumption, upon finding Shooter dead, was that he had been felled by a heart attack.

Then Michelsen's preteen daughter discovered Stormy had suffered a gunshot wound to the chin. That prompted the two of them to take a closer look at Shooter.

He had been shot through the eye. What's more, the shooting had presumably come at close range, as a pellet gun lacks both power as well as accuracy, and the projectile had plowed on through, lodging in the brain.

Michelsen said she had a hard time understanding how someone could shoot defenseless animals in a pasture.

The third miniature, Bo Dandy, didn't emerge entirely unscathed either, the family found.

"He was cowering in a corner of the pasture," Michelsen said. "He continued to tremble for 24 hours. We actually had to sedate him, he was so traumatized."

The News-Register was unable to independently confirm existence of a threatening letter from Kroo to Michelsen, or a county letter to Kroo in response. No such documents could be found in the land-use file maintained at the courthouse.

Michelsen said she turned copies of both letters over to a sheriff's office investigator Friday morning. Capt. Summers confirmed that she had provided some documents, but said he had not seen them and thus could not confirm their nature and content.

At present, the shooting is being investigation as a case of aggravated first-degree animal abuse, a Class C felony. Anyone with potentially relevant information is asked to call Sgt. Tim Svenson or Deputy Darren Broome at 503-434-6500.

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News-Register - June 23, 2007

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