Animal rescue group says horses may have starved | Pets

[Editor's note:  The picture at the end of this story is graphic and may be disturbing to sensitive readers]

An animal rights group and the Mason County Sheriff’s Office are at odds over what caused the death of two horses in a pasture west of Shelton earlier this week.

The owner reported that his two of horses had been shot, but a deputy who examined the animals never found any blood or bullet wounds, according to Chief Deputy Dean Byrd.

Byrd said the deputy took photos of the animals and interviewed the owner, but did not flip over the horses. He says it will remain unclear because the owner has already buried the horses.

Photos of the horses taken by a neighbor were sent to Pasado Safe Haven, an animal rescue organization in Sultan.

Cruelty investigator Kim Koon said the photographs indicate the animals may have starved to death and now they want to pay for a necropsy on both horses.

“That is not going to happen,” Byrd said. “They have no right to exhume those animals. There is no evidence of a crime and a search warrant would be needed. We have done the prudent thing here and there is no evidence these animals were starving.”

On Thursday, a veterinarian inspected the two remaining horses on the property and told Byrd the animals are too thin, but are not starving.

The horses received a 1 rating on a scale of 0 to 5 in which 0 represents starving.

Koon said she has received many messages from concerned neighbors stating the animals have been going hungry for some time. Neighbors would sneak on to the pasture to feed the animals themselves, she said.

 “We would like to properly determine the cause of death and ideally we would like to re-home those other horses,” Koon said. “If starvation was the cause of their death, the shooting story would be an easy cover-up.”

Byrd said his department will help get the two remaining horses “fattened up” and deputies will continue to monitor their progress.

The owner isn’t concerned about pursuing any investigation into the alleged shootings, Byrd said.

“He just wanted to bury his horses and move on. I can see why these people are upset but based on the law, there won’t be any charges.”