MARION COUNTY, Fla. – A Marion County family is searching for answers after their horse was found dead on their pasture.
The family believes someone killed their 21-year-old horse.
This all happened at a farm on SW 16th Avenue, just off the Dunnellon/Belleview exit on Interstate 75.
Tammy Davis told News 6 she and her mother came to feed Hot Rod and his sister Copper, when they saw Hot Rod dead in the pasture.
It's a horse Tammy Davis has taken care of for more than 20 years.
"I got him at a time when I was told I would no longer be able to have kids," she said. "I got my kid as a horse. He is my son and my life."
Davis said Copper, The family's other horse, was in the same pasture overnight and was unharmed. Davis told News 6 she has reached out to the Marion County Sheriff's Office and other agencies because she believes it wasn't an animal that did this.
“It was a very clean-cut,” she said. “And they stripped both sides of the body.”
"Where an animal uses teeth, this was not teeth," her mother added. "Not teeth at all."
Now, the two are hoping investigators will be able to figure out what happened.
"We need to find out who is doing this so nobody else's horses have the same problem."
News 6 has learned the Marion County Sheriff’s Office is aware of this incident but has not heard back on the status of their investigation.