Horse shot in Todd County

[Eric Wettschreck]

Yup. Amazing how we can jump to conclusions without facts.

[Scott M]

Yeah, I was amazed to hear that yesterday.

[Dotch]

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It turned out that the horse died of natural causes and then was partial eaten by wild animals!

Hum' you think PETA or some other news organization ran with this story too fast.

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Yep, along with a whole bunch of people on this board.

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Guess I wouldn't be so quick to castigate those who reacted negatively on this board to the news reports as they became available. At least the reactions were of genuine disgust and concern, not that of indifference or worse yet, to defend anyone who might have been involved if a crime indeed had been committed. If you read the last report completely, the uncle who was initially not convinced that this was a hunting accident was still not so convinced that this was a natural causes death either. The vet who originally made the call reversed his initial observation.

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1563095.html

The uncle may have a point. Having been around a lot of large animal vets over my lifetime and having had the good fortune to ride along on insurance claims to post dead cattle, horses, sheep, etc., there are some who are excellent and willing to admit it when they simply do not know what caused the animal's death, hence the natural causes tag. Some cases are cut and dried. A strip of burned hair on a heifer's leg running to the shoulder and a tongue bit in two where she crash landed would indicate (class?) lightning. Any time an animal has been dead awhile though and dug up to be re-examined, would raise some questions in my mind as to whether the cause of death could really be determined beyond the shadow of a doubt. Lung tissue would be degraded, blood would be gone, other tissue would have been decomposed to the point where it would be pretty tough to say what happened. Aliens as iffwalleyes pointed out? Perhaps.

[iffwalleyes]

I was glad to hear it as well. Local talk I heard from at home was the family was upset with how the investigation went so they took it to the press. Anyone that has dealt with the media knows that they are quick to run a good story and not always make sure it is right. I think it was a bit premature especially until the vet had determined that it wasn't a gun shot.

But she got a new horse out of the deal for a horse that just plain died. So maybe everything is all better.

[Shack]

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It turned out that the horse died of natural causes and then was partial eaten by wild animals!

Hum' you think PETA or some other news organization ran with this story too fast.

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Yep, along with a whole bunch of people on this board.

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How are people supposed to act or think when a sheriff is saying it was a hunter cutting and digging out a bullet or slug?

At least the posters of this thread where willing to help if needed.

I am most glad it worked out for the young girl and she can now feel safe at night (I would think).

[snowman678]

The point I was trying to make (knowing full well that I'd get blasted for it) is that sometimes we are all a little too quick to jump on a story that we don't have facts about (myself included). Before we attack the media over running with a story, we sometimes need to look at how willing we are to do the same thing.

I agree that it's a good thing that the people here were willing to help her get a new horse, and I'm glad she did. I just don't like to see people piling onto others without knowing what happened. I also believe the sheriff said that it "looked like maybe someone was trying to remove a bullet"; at that point he was just speculating; and as it turned out, it looks like he was incorrect.

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Also, if you read the comment I was responding to, which talked about how PETA & the media ran with this story, I simply added the fact that people here had also. Never did I say anyone here was a bad person for saying what they did. If it had in-fact been a hunter that had shot the horse, I'd be first in line to hammer on the (Contact Us Please) that did it.