- Several horses have been found dead in recent months, savagely mutilated, each time with their ears cut off.
- Nearly twenty cases have been identified by the gendarmes of the Central Office for the fight against attacks on the environment and public health (Oclaesp) of Pontoise.
- Pauline Sarrazin, owner of a mare killed near Dieppe, created the Facebook group “Justice for our horses” to “bring together the owners who were victims and invite the equine community to be vigilant”.
Cropped ears, torn eye, severed sexual organs ... It could be the plot of a thriller or a horror film, but the strange series of violent deaths of horses, found mutilated in several departments, is nothing fictitious. This week again, a thoroughbred was found slaughtered by its owners near Lannion (Côtes-d'Armor). For several months, equines (mares, stallions, ponies and donkeys) have also been killed and / or mutilated in Vendée, in Jura, Somme, Rhône, Loire, Puy-de-Dôme. Cases have also been identified in Normandy and in the South-West. In total, nearly twenty cases were listed by the gendarmes of the Central Office for the fight against attacks on the environment and public health (Oclaesp) of Pontoise.
Faced with these attacks, concern is growing among professionals. "After this series of acts of cruelty towards equines throughout the territory", the French Equestrian Federation (FFE) joined as a civil party alongside the owners concerned. "Our determination to fight against any form of mistreatment of equines is total", indicated the FFE which intends to "fight these acts of barbarism" by mobilizing all the players in the horse industry in France. Horse owners have also decided to organize themselves to deal with this series of mysterious attacks. A Facebook page entitled "Justice for our horses" was created last June by the owner of a savagely mutilated mare.
For several months, serial horse ear cutters have been rampant in France, in several regions.
In the Somme, a pony and a mare are found dead with an ear cut off in a boarding house for equines.
The gendarmes are considering a "macabre challenge". pic.twitter.com/3v4jzRn0Jb
"List mutilations and identify new cases"
This private group, followed by nearly 5,500 members, "aims to bring together the victim owners and invite the equine community to vigilance," explains Pauline Sarrazin, who administers this page. "The goal is that people who have lost a horse or a donkey in similar circumstances can come into contact. We must corner those who murder our horses, ”adds the 23-year-old young woman, whose mare was killed on June 6 in broad daylight. According to her, some cases may have fallen through the cracks. "Some owners may have thought that their animal had died of natural causes, and that it had then been devoured by crows." This is the thesis that the police initially adopted to explain the death of his mare, aged 16.
Lady was found dead in a field located in Martin-Eglise, near Dieppe (Seine-Maritime). “His right ear had been taken. The circumference of his eye had been cut off and his muzzle severed ”. For the owner, very affected by this macabre discovery, there is no doubt that this abominable mutilation is the work of a human. Since that day, Pauline Sarrazin has been involved in identifying new cases and identifying mutilations. She says there are actually many more on French territory. “The problem is, it's never the same type of equine targeted and never the same way of killing. The only link is the cut ear, ”she explains.
A challenge launched on the Internet or a satanic ritual?
Faced with the succession of these acts of cruelty - about twenty so far recorded in France -, the investigators are asking themselves many questions. “Is this a challenge launched on the Internet? A challenge ? The drive of an individual? All avenues are being considered, ”said Bruno Wallart, commander of the Riom (Puy-de-Dôme) gendarmerie company at the end of June. For him, the only common point of these cases, it is "the death of these horses in a surprising way and the mutilation". A note from the Central Territorial Intelligence Service (SRCT), which attempts to take stock of all these enigmas, suggests other avenues. "Questions arise about their authors and their real intentions: superstition, fetishism, satanic ritual, sectarian or other", indicates the document dated June 30.
Scipio killed for free by one or more garbage which cut off an ear and gouged out an eye!
The facts took place in the Grumesnil sector at the level of Merlet wood (Seine Maritime).
🔈If you have any information: Gendarmerie de Gournay-en-Bray on 02 35 90 00 17 pic.twitter.com/Z2M7eaVYSO
In view of the dispersion of the attacks, it is difficult in any case to imagine a serial killer. But for Pauline Sarrazin, who works in hospitals, one thing is certain. “The cutting of the organs was 'surgical'. The one or those who do this know what they are doing and know how to do it very well ”. “These are people who know animals. To be able to approach and reach them vitally and quickly, which must be the case, you have to know how to approach these animals ”, also declared Serge Lecomte, president of the French Equestrian Federation (FFE).
Similar facts in Europe
Several investigations have been opened in an attempt to shed light on these cases. According to the gendarmerie, at least 11 investigations have been underway since February, in various departments for "acts of barbarism". Calls for witnesses were launched locally, and an Internet watch to detect discussions on social networks or on forums was activated. Investigators also sent information requests to Germany, Britain and Belgium, where similar cases have taken place in the past.
Similar facts have indeed fueled the news section of Belgian, British and German newspapers in recent years. In England, around thirty attacks in 1992 and 1993 remained unexplained. Each time, faced with the incomprehension, the investigators raised the hypothesis of the satanist ritual. The phenomenon even bears a name, "cattle mutilation", and is defined by the discovery of animals that have died under abnormal circumstances, most of the time mutilated with surgical precision.
Miscellaneous
Brittany: A horse found slaughtered in the Côtes-d'Armor
Miscellaneous
Jura: An investigation opened after a new discovery of a mutilated mare
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- Animal cruelty
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