MORRISTOWN, Ariz. — A horse was found dead in Morristown and the person who found it believes it was tortured before it died.
At around 2 p.m. on Saturday, Maricopa County Sheriff's Office deputies were dispatched to the area of State Route 74 in Morristown in reference to a dead horse. When deputies got to the scene, they found the animal.
Ray Cooper, a photographer, was the one who called them when he found the dead animal.
"It freaked me out big time," Cooper said.
He had been in the area looking to take photos of the desert scenery. Cooper said he stumbled across the animal and noticed it's back legs were roped together and tied to a nearby tree. He then said it appeared that someone had sliced the horses neck and belly.
"It's guts were hanging out," he said.
Animal crimes detectives will continue the investigation, authorities said.
Authorities did not release any further details including if the horse was killed before being brought to the desert or if it was tortured and killed at the scene.
Simone Netherlands is the president of the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group. After seeing the photos of the horse, she believes it was tortured because the dirt around the horses front legs makes it appears as if it was moving in severe pain.
"That's what horses do when they suffer," Netherlands said. "It's just very disturbing to me to our whole group to see someone treating horses so inhumanely and cruel."
Netherlands said her group has seen other animals like goats and chickens dumped into Tonto National Forest.
"We're seeing it more and more, some very disturbing dumped, animals without heads," Netherlands said.
She can't say for sure why this happened but no matter the case, the person responsible should be found.
"Something horrible happened there," she said.
<< This story will be updated as additional information becomes available. Stay with 12News for the latest.
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