‘Why would someone do this?’ Local family mourns beloved horse shot near Sage Lakes Golf Course
Maile Sipraseuth
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI)– An Idaho Falls man and police is looking for answers after a horse was shot sometime between late Saturday evening, across the Sage Lakes Golf Course, near Lewisville Highway.
“This incident has been more disturbing than it has heartbreaking, in a sense. Horses pass, dogs pass. But for somebody to be this malicious just is beyond my comprehension. I just can’t understand it,” Lynn Pack, the horse’s owner, said.
Pack says he first learned something was wrong around 7:15 Sunday morning after receiving a phone call from a neighbor saying one of his horses had been injured.
“At 7:15 exactly, I get this phone call from my neighbor saying I had a horse that was injured,” Pack said. “So I jumped on a four-wheeler, came up and I looked at her… I’ve been around animals all my life and I knew it wasn’t an injury. And the minute I got close enough, I knew it was a gunshot.”
The horse was shot through the leg and had to be euthanized.
Tonto, the horse, has been a part of the Pack family since 2018.
“All of my grandkids and all of my daughters were in tears because they’ve all ridden that horse,” Pack said. “Every one of them have ridden that horse.”
“This is certainly not something we commonly see in our community, and anytime an animal is intentionally harmed in this manner is concerning. Officers and investigators are taking the incident seriously and actively following up on leads,” Lieutenant Howell of the Idaho Falls Police Department, said.
Pack says evidence at the scene, including footprints and blood splatter, leads him to believe the shooting was intentional. He says the horse was shot from a steep angle near the roadway above the pasture.
“There was footprints going down here. We found the blood splatter. The officer took pictures of the blood splatter and everything,” Pack said. “So we know for sure that this was a malicious shooting.”
IFPD is asking anyone who may have information, surveillance footage, or who may have observed suspicious activity in the area to contact them.