Gruesome mystery in France as dozens of horses and ponies are mutilated

French authorities are searching for the serial killer or killers who have attacked dozens of horses, ponies and a donkey this year, causing the death of about 15 animals and mutilating as many others.

"These are acts of unspeakable barbarity, of totally gratuitous cruelty," agriculture minister Julien Denormandie said when visiting a stable where a mare was mutilated last week. "They cut an ear, take out an eye. They drain an animal's blood, lacerate it for no reason."

The victims are male and female and of all ages. They range from ponies worth a few hundred euro to a racehorse valued at up to €200,000.

In about 20 cases the perpetrators cut off an ear and took it with them. Causes of death have included cardiac arrest due to fear or exhaustion, strangulation, shooting, knife wounds and throat slashings.

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Mr Denormandie said that counting seriously injured animals who survived, “more than 30 cases have occurred in a dozen French departments” this year. Some press reports cite higher figures.

In the most recent attacks, on Saturday, a mare was found with a 10cm gash on her neck in northwest France, and a pony in the Jura, east-central France, was badly cut on the shin. Both animals survived. Two ponies were stabbed in the southwest last Wednesday and Thursday.

Five attacks were reported on August 24th, when a farmer in the central Yonne department, alerted by the cries of terrified animals, found two men lacerating his ponies with a curved knife. They wounded the farmer, who helped police draw up an identikit portrait of the assailants.

On August 29th, the owner of an equestrian centre on the Channel coast reported seeing a man who resembled the wanted poster from Yonne. Police arrested a Polish man in his 30s who had a commando knife in his car. However, they released him on Monday after corroborating his story that he had arrived early in the area to help with a delivery.

First case

The first case in the macabre series occurred in the Loire Valley in January 2014, when a 20-year-old mare was strangled and badly mutilated. Gendarmes thought it might have been a satanic ritual, a hypothesis entertained for more recent killings.

Or the attacks may be an example of copy-cat violence. The Brigitte Bardot Foundation speaks of a "horse gang", but there is no evidence of its existence.

A second horse was killed in November 2017, a third in December 2018, when a three-year-old filly called First Avenue was shot dead in Auvergne. The fourth, a mare called Oasis, was killed in the same area 6½ months later.

The first equine fatality reported this year had occurred in Brittany over the Christmas holiday. Gold des Luthiers was discovered at an agriculture school in Moselle on February 12th with his head smashed in and one ear missing.

Three days later Démon de Médoc, a race horse, was found dead in Vendée, partially scalped. A Connemara pony was found dead on April 1st in the Chevreuse Valley southwest of Paris with a 30cm gash on her neck and a missing left ear.

The attacks intensified after the coronavirus lockdown was lifted. Helsa Tois Vallées, a mare, was killed in the Somme on May 13th.

On June 19th, an affectionate donkey called Scipion was found dead in Normandy, with an eye gouged out and one ear cut off.

A horse found dead in l’Oise, north of Paris, in July had been horribly tortured, with an eye, genitals and left ear cut off and a gash on his jugular vein.

Throat

Among the half dozen animals killed in August was a pony from the Essonne, south of Paris, who was wounded in the throat, flank and thorax and had his right ear cut off.

Investigators fear the horse killers might turn on humans. Studies in US prisons and psychiatric institutions indicate close to 70 per cent of violent criminals start by torturing animals, Paris Match magazine reported.

No one has a reliable explanation for the horrific litany. The UK, Germany and Belgium have reportedly seen similar killings. If apprehended the perpetrators risk two years in prison and a €30,000 fine for cruelty to animals.