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A series of horrific horse and pony murders in France have left the police baffled and the equine community in fear.
Up to 30 incidents have been reported in grasslands across the country, including cut ears, removed eyes, cut genitalia, cuts to the sides and blood drainage.
No meat is extracted from carcasses.
Some of the gruesome acts could have been ritual mutilations of an unknown cult, while other theories exist about a “chilling” challenge on social media or copycat crimes.
In most attacks, one ear has been cut off, usually the right, echoing the matadors taking trophies in a bullring.
Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie said that he “did not exclude anything” in the investigation and that “all means are in motion to end this terror.”
He added: “Ears are cut off, eyes are removed, the blood of an animal is emptied.”
The crime scenes range from the mountainous Jura region in the east to the Atlantic coast in the west, with many taking place this summer.
A police spokeswoman in Paris said: “We don’t understand the motivation. Is it a satanic rite, an insurance fraud, a macabre trophy hunt or an Internet challenge? We don’t know. It’s very traumatizing.”
The incidents have taken place in grasslands across the country. Stock Image
There is speculation about how such barbarous acts, some of a surgical nature, could be carried out without knowledge of equine anatomy or on a horse that could presumably run away.
Veterinarian Aude Giraudet, head of the equine division at the Alfort National Veterinary School, said: “A frightened horse in a meadow will not be caught.
“The horse that feels confident with people … will come, it will be normal for him to put a harness or rope around his neck. I’m not sure you need a lot of knowledge about horses.”
He said that an ear can be cut off while the horse is standing, but that the animal would have to be prostrate to undergo further horrific mutilations.
A man confronted two attackers at his animal shelter last Monday in a town in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region.
The couple fled in a vehicle.
Nicolas Demajean suffered an arm injury during a fight with an intruder who had a knife, while the other cut the sides of two ponies, who are traumatized but recovering.
He told France 3 television station: “I used to be confident in putting my horses to pasture. Today, I am afraid in my gut.”
The next day, a young pony was attacked in the Saone-et-Loire region. In another case, some organs were removed from a horse.
The president of the French Equestrian Federation has offered to help the police investigate the cases.
“We are all afraid,” said Veronique Dupin, an official with a riding club in the Yvelines region west of Paris, and asked that the exact location of the stable not be identified.
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