A beloved miniature horse named Penny has been found dead in a Wisconsin field with a crossbow bolt through its chest.
Wood Weller, a land owner in Lone Rock, Wisconsin, said that he was at his other home in Illinois when a neighbour called him telling him they had spotted Penny lying on the ground in his fenced-off pasture.
Mr Weller said that he drove immediately up to Sauk County on Thursday night to find the 21-year-old horse dead with a long, blue arrow sticking from her body.
The horse’s chest had already started to partially decompose around where the arrow had struck, he said.
The devastated owner said that he has no idea who could have killed Penny.
“I saw this kind of diagonal blue line. Then as I looked closer, I realized it was a crossbow bolt,” he told NBC15.
“It just kind of stopped me in my tracks. I was distraught more for what it meant about some person’s bad decision and a darkness that somebody had, to do such a thing.”
In a Facebook post, he added: “Whoever has done this should only know the pain it is causing my small grandchildren especially, and the adults in our family.”
Penny is believed to have been killed sometime between 26 and 29 September, the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Monday.
The miniature horse was beloved by Mr Weller’s grandchildren— (NBC15)
The department is currently investigating who shot her.
Mr Weller said that his grandchildren adored Penny, so the hardest part for him was having to break the news to them that Penny won’t be there the next time they come to visit Weller Farm.
”My heart is broken for my grandchildren that have no possible way to put this into context and of course, we will not tell them that an arrow killed her,” he said.
Mr Weller said he doesn’t believe the horse’s death could have been a result of a hunting accident.
“No. From what he saw, and the placement of the arrow, he did not conceive it as being an accident,” he said of law enforcement officials who came to the scene.
Penny often gave rides to Mr Weller’s granddaughter— (Wood Weller/NBC15)
“If it had been an accident, the person would’ve called somebody right away, or called the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office to say, ‘Oh, my God!’’’
Mr Weller claimed the arrow will be tested for DNA.
The sheriff’s office confirmed that “evidence at the scene indicates this may have been an intentional act, although that has not yet been confirmed”.
A $1,000 reward is being offered for information about Penny’s death.
