An Essex woman is hoping someone can help her figure out what happened after two of her horses were injured and had to be put down. Beth Kinnaird-Iler told AM800’s Mornings with Mike and Meg that on Tuesday afternoon, she looked out at the horse paddock at their farm on Iler Road and noticed one of the horses was having trouble getting up. “We went out to check to see what was going on. I saw a huge gash in his hip, probably around seven to eight inches wide and five inches deep. Clean cut,” she says. Kinnaird-Iler says hours later they had to put the horse down, one that had been with the family for 20 years. By 6 p.m., she says they saw a second of their horses seriously injured and had to also put her down, as the damage was just too extensive. Kinnaird-Iler says they checked the area the horse was in to see if there was something that would have caused that injury. “We’ve had horses on our property for 15-plus years and never had anything like this. It was so deep,” she said. “The vet didn’t comment on what could have caused it. We said among ourselves that it wasn’t an animal injury. There were no bite marks or scratches; it was a clean cut.” Kinnaird-Iler says the horse paddocks are not near the road. “There’s a lot of tree area around us; again, I don’t know if it was an individual. My mind goes in that direction because it was such a horrific cut. We don’t have cameras,” she said. Kinnaird-Iler is appealing to the public if they saw a vehicle or person(s) that was in the area or anything unusual or out of place between 12 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tuesday to contact police. Essex County OPP put out an appeal, asking for anyone with information to come forward. Anyone who saw suspicious activity on farmland or has video footage of anything suspicious in the 900 block of Iler Road is asked to contact police at 1-888-310-1122. Anonymous reports can also be made to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or submit online.
