Police search for person who 'hunted,' killed 21 horses in Kentucky

PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (WXIN) -- Animal rescue group Dumas Rescue says 21 horses were shot to death in the past week in eastern Kentucky.

Fifteen of the horses were killed along U.S. 23 near the Floyd-Pike County line, WYMT-TV reported, and another six were shot near a strip mine site.

Tonya Conn with Dumas Rescue has said that the dead horses were scattered over a large area and it appears they were hunted.

The station says a $20,000 reward is being offered for information on the shootings. Authorities have said some of the slain horses were young and some were pregnant.

“This is very inhumane and it's a very cruel act of somebody who just apparently had nothing else to do or whatever just to go back on a strip job and shoot down horses who were, one of them obviously was feeding, had grass in its mouth,” Floyd County Sheriff John Hunt said. “It looked like a battlefield for just horses.”