A man has been detained in connection with the cases of mystery mutilations of horses in France. Since July, at least 30 horses have been found with ears cut off, eyes gouged out and genitals mutilated. Several people have been detained for questioning but till now the police have not found any clue about the incidents.
The latest case was booked on September 6 in the south of Dijon in Burgundy. The owner of a horse called police at around 1 a.m. BST after seeing lamp lights in his meadow. However, timely action prevented the horse from getting injured severely.
More Cops to be Deployed to Nab Culprits
Interior minister Gerald Darmanin has announced that more officers would be put on night patrols in affected areas. To nab the culprits, a major police operation was launched in the Cote-d'Or region, involving 40 officers and a helicopter. The police have detained one man in this regard.
The man who has been arrested is said to be in his 50s and was picked up from his home in Alsace. He is also wanted in connection with an attack in Yonne, north-west of Dijon, last month. Cops have not released his name or any other details regarding him. When police visited the place, they also saw another man lurking around suspiciously. Though he managed to get away, the police have released his sketch, considered as a suspect spotted at the scene.
Ritual or Copycat Series of Crime?
Though more cases of mutilations on horses were found in July and August, cops suspect that the series of attacks on horses began early this year. The first discovery was made and reported by Remy Marehcal, a farrier who shoes horses in the northern town of Preux-au-Bois. He said that he found a pony with its eye gouged out in July, and two horses injured in August.
Cops are still trying to find out the motive behind mutilating and killing the horses. They are not sure of it is the work of one person or a group of people who are trying to copy the brutal killing patters. Some reports also claimed that these killings looked like ritualistic mutations.
Ranch Owner Comes Face to Face With Attackers
Nicolas Demajean, owner of a ranch in Burgundy that houses at least 100 abandoned or rescued animals, had come face to face with the attackers, reported Flash news. One night he woke up to the loud squalls of two pigs and tried to confront the two intruders with his walking stick. But they attacked him with knife injuring his left forearm. He said that they had cut the leash of two ponies and a horse.
The suspects ran away but he saw a small wooden sculpture believed to be a voodoo doll at the site of one of the attacks. He also said that he couldn't understand the language the attackers were speaking but said that accent was from Eastern Europe. Similar attacks on horses were also reported between 2014 and 206 in France, Belgium, and Germany between 2014 and 2016.
