The burnt-out bodies of a mare and her foal have been found dumped in a forest.
Barbaric
The two horses had been shot dead before being set on fire in King’s Forest near Bury St Edmund in Suffolk on Sunday 14 December.
The owner of the horses has not been identified and local police are investigating the incident with the help of the RSPCA.
Aside from the barbaric treatment of the horses, it is an offence to dump animals in the countryside.
Unacceptable
“There are ways and means of doing this and this is way outside of what I would consider to be acceptable,” PC Mark Bryant told the BBC.
If they were shot in the forest, a firearms offence may also have been committed.
“I suspect that they’re either not needed, not required or ill and, to save cost, somebody has decided to take the law into their own hands,” said PC Bryant.