When she woke up on Aug. 31, Julie Sloan noticed her horses acting strange.
“They seemed a little off,” she says, adding, the animals appeared worried or spooked. Sloan then noticed that the youngest of the horses, an animal that belonged to her son, was missing.
After catching the older horses, Sloan’s husband spotted the young horse in the back of the field. As they approached the young animal, Sloan anticipated something was wrong.
“I knew that I was going to find something pretty bad,” she says, adding, as she got closer, her instincts proved true.
“(The horse’s) left leg was broken completely in half . . . I’ve never seen an injury so horrific.”
Clearly in pain, Sloan and her husband made the decision to put the horse down. While she was waiting for her husband to borrow a gun and return with it, Sloan held the pained and exhausted horse up for 10 minutes, wondering what could have caused such an injury. Then, she noticed what she believes to be a bullet hole near the horse’s rear end.
Later in the day, Sloan says they noticed what she suspects were tire tracks by the fence line, not far from their home, which is located in the St. Lina area. She says that her horses are rather predictable and often stand in the same area at night, which happened to be near the tire tracks, leading her to suspect that someone had shot at the animals.
In a post to her Facebook page, Sloan wrote a message to the person/people she felt was/were responsible, saying, “She was just a baby, a gift to my son. You caused her incredible pain. The shot to her butt caused so much pain and panic, she shattered her leg . . . You stole from my son, from my family, from the beautiful people who gave her to us to love.”
The couple contacted RCMP, but information on the incident was unavailable.
Sloan says she had family members staying in a trailer in the yard that same night, and the thought of a stray bullet potentially hitting the trailer or family home is frightening.
“I can’t see any logical explanation for it being a mistake,” says Sloan, adding, anyone who lives in the area knows there are horses at the residence.
“The part that bothers me the most is that this happened in our front yard,” says Sloan, who questioned her family’s safety after the incident. “Yes, it was a horse that got shot, but it could have been even worse than that.”
District Fish and Wildlife Officer for St. Paul Duane Fleming says it isn’t common to hear of shots being fired at horses and cattle, but that it does happen.
“We hear about it,” he says. Although the majority of people are responsible when using firearms, not everybody shows the same respect. He explains that shooting someone’s livestock is considered theft and is punishable by law.
It’s a good time to remind people to be mindful, he said.
“We are getting closer to hunting season . . . watch your property, watch your neighbour’s property,” he says. Fleming says firearms cannot be discharged within 200 yards of any occupied building. He adds that people are also prohibited from shooting across roadways.
If someone believe a person or people are shooting at livestock, Fleming encourages calling the RCMP.
“If someone is shooting livestock, that’s a poacher or a thief,” says Fleming, adding that hunters are often mindful of what they are shooting.
If someone suspects a firearm is being discharged at night, and near a road, they are encouraged to contact the Fish and Wildlife 24-hour response number, at 1-800-642-3800.
