A horse was found mutilated dead in Sweden, with injuries considered to be of human origin, police learned on Wednesday, the first fatal case reported since a mysterious wave of mutilation hit France.
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A month earlier, on August 18, in the same area near the town of Jönköping in southern Sweden, a horse had been mutilated but survived.
The animal was this time found dead on Monday at a horse farm south-east of Jönköping and “it had several injuries that we believe were committed by humans,” Thomas Agnevik, a carrier, told AFP. word of the local police.
According to Swedish media, an eye and an ear had been cut from the horse.
An investigation was opened for “cruelty to animals” and “damage,” police said.
These mutilation cases are the first to be reported in Sweden since a wave of similar attacks in France, which became the legal mystery of the summer.
The animals affected in France are mainly equines (horses, mares, ponies), of any breed and of any age. In addition, financial value does not seem to be a criterion: it is as much for private horses as for professional breeders.
The mutilations observed on dead animals are initially concentrated on the right ear. Often deep and precise, they can thus make one think of a form of signature.