LONGVIEW, Wash. -- Officials and residents are concerned after a horse was shot and butchered near Silver Lake and four others appear to have been abandoned there this past week.
The Daily News reports a herd of wild horses has roamed Weyerhaeuser Co., property near Headquarters Camp and south Silver Lake for decades, and is looked after by a Weyerhaeuser contractor.
Sheriff Mark Nelson says it is a crime to kill the horses and he's never heard of one being shot. He said it was particularly bizarre that the animal was butchered.
As for the abandoned horses, officials believe people are leaving the domesticated animals there because they can't afford to feed them anymore in mistaken hopes they'll be absorbed by the wild herd.
But horse lovers say that just isn't going to happen.
