AR-News: (AZ - US) Horse-slashings mystery solved

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Horse-slashings mystery solved 

By Carla McClain 
ARIZONA DAILY STAR 
 
A series of alarming horse-slashings at one of Tucson's most famous guest 
ranches throughout last summer has finally been solved.  
Whodunit?  
Not a crazed and cruel human animal abuser, as sheriff's deputies and local 
horse owners at first feared.  
To almost everyone's relief and astonishment, the slasher has instead turned 
out to be one of their own - an especially aggressive horse corralled with the 
injured equines at the historic Tanque Verde Guest Ranch at the end of East 
Speedway.  
At least 20 ranch horses suffered strangely similar gashes under the throat - 
wounds described by investigators as "jagged" and running 1 to 4 inches long 
and about an inch deep - from July through September of last year.  
Because the wounds were always in the same place - near the vital jugular 
vein - and always happened late at night, authorities concluded the slashings 
were most likely human-caused, deliberate and possibly attempts to kill the 
horses.  
The case was turned over to the Animal Cruelty Taskforce of Southern Arizona 
and a $3,500 reward was offered for any tip leading to the arrest of the 
slasher. But no arrest was made and no reward paid.  
The case was cracked when a guest ranch employee finally caught a horse in 
the act of biting another in the throat, according to friends of the ranch 
owner, Bob Cote. When the culprit equine was isolated in another corral, the 
slashings ceased, and the case was closed.  
"This was not normal behavior - this was amazingly unique. No one, not the 
veterinarians, not the owners, no one, ever guessed another horse was possibly 
doing this," said Russell True, owner of the White Stallion Ranch near the 
Tucson Mountains and a friend of Cote.  
"Horses will get aggressive sometimes - they'll bite, nip or kick, get into 
scrapes with each other. They do have a pecking order. But this didn't look 
like a horse bite. It was too consistent.  
"For a horse to do this the same way every time - to more than 20 horses - is 
unique. It really looked like the horses had been very deliberately cut, with 
a knife."  
Repeated efforts to contact Cote and other Tanque Verde employees this week 
were unsuccessful.  
Confirming the case was no longer under investigation, sheriff's spokesman 
Dawn Barkman said, "We don't have absolute concrete proof it was another horse.  

"But when a suspect horse was taken away from the immediate area and the 
attacks virtually stopped, that is the logical conclusion. So, based on our 
information, there does not appear to be a human horse abuser out there."  
Calling that "great news" for all horse owners, a Tucson horse expert said 
the repeated pattern of the bites is abnormal horse behavior but can be 
explained.  
"A repeated bite in that location is an aggressive bite. Most likely this is 
just a mean horse," said Jerry Hamilton, manager for the nationally known 
Al-Marah Arabians breeding farm in Tucson.  
"The horse was doing it when no one else was there to stop him. And he got 
ahold of the most vulnerable place - the throat. He knows the horse can't bite 
him back or even turn around to kick him."  
Hamilton said he does not believe this, or any other horse, was "born mean" 
but probably acquired aggressive habits as a young horse penned in a space 
crowded with other horses.  
"That's how he learned to protect himself under conditions like that," 
Hamilton said.  
Such behavior indicates some "heavy-handed treatment" by a human in the 
horse's past, said Tucson horse trainer Marc Deveraux.  
"When you coop horses up together in too small a space, their territorial 
instincts come out, over food and a place to stand, and they can't settle their 
disputes. They have no space to move away, as would happen in the wild," said 
Deveraux, who specializes in "horse gentling" techniques.  
"You get a dominant horse in that situation that has an ax to grind - usually 
because of abuse - you will see aggression and injuries.  
"It's no surprise that a horse could have done this."  
° Contact reporter Carla McClain at 806-7754 or cmcclain at azstarnet.com. 

    

    
    

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