WAGONER, Okla. -- Deputies are investigating the cruel shooting death of an eight-month-old horse.
Glenda Cook said she walked outside Saturday morning during the predawn hours and saw her beloved horse, Skippy, lying on the ground near the house. She tried to run over to her quickly, but knew that it was too late.
"If they're cold-hearted enough to walk up to just a baby horse and put a bullet in the top of her head," Cook said, "they could do that to a person."
She discovered a gunshot wound between the horse's ears. She assumed that an errant shot from a hunter may have struck the horse since she lives in such a remote area west of Wagoner. When deputies arrived, however, they suspected something far more sinister.
Deputies located footprints in the dirt leading from the locked gate all the way up to the place where Skippy slept, which led them to believe that someone came onto the property and intentionally shot the horse.
"You don't know that the next time they do that, it's not going to be pointed at a human being," Cook said. "They need to be caught. Not just to pay for killing that filly, but to protect the next person in line."
Cook said the deputies told her that the person used a high-caliber pistol to shoot Skippy at point-blank range. Right now they're unsure who pulled the trigger, so Cook is offering a $1,000 reward to anyone with information that can lead to an arrest and conviction.
"Someone knows who did it," Cook said. "You don't do that without people knowing it. Somebody's going to say something, or somebody knows."
Anyone with information should call the Wagoner County Sheriff's Office at 918-485-3124.
