在肯塔基州的鄉(xiāng)村，15匹馬被獵殺

在肯塔基州的鄉(xiāng)村，15匹馬被獵殺

Fifteen horses were shot and killed in the woods of Eastern Kentucky in what authorities call a cruel and inhumane crime that they're now working to unravel. Local authorities are offering a $1,500 reward — an amount boosted by donations from people who want the killer brought to justice.

在肯塔基州東部的樹林里，15匹馬被射殺，當局稱這是殘忍和不人道的罪行，目前他們正在努力解決。地方當局懸賞1500美元，這筆錢來自希望將兇手繩之以法的人的捐款。

The horses were found in the area of a rehabilitated strip mine near Floyd County's border with neighboring Pike County. For years, locals say, 30 or more horses have roamed the rough and isolated terrain there. But that changed horribly this week.

這些馬是在佛洛伊德縣與鄰近的派克縣邊界附近的一個已修復(fù)的露天礦場發(fā)現(xiàn)的。當?shù)厝苏f，多年來，有30多匹馬在這片崎嶇偏僻的土地上游蕩。但本周情況發(fā)生了可怕的變化。

"It looked like a battlefield for just horses — we counted 15 that we found dead. All 15 appeared to us to have been shot," Floyd County Sheriff John Hunt told local TV station WYMT.

“這看起來就像一個只有馬的戰(zhàn)場——我們發(fā)現(xiàn)有15匹馬死亡。在我們看來，所有15人都是被槍殺的。” 弗洛伊德縣警長約翰·亨特告訴當?shù)仉娨暸_WYMT。

"This is very inhumane," Hunt says, "and it's a very cruel act of somebody who just apparently had nothing else to do and shoot down horses who were — one of them obviously was feeding, had grass in its mouth."

“這是非常不人道的，”亨特說，“這是一種非常殘忍的行為，一個人顯然沒有其他事情可做，把馬射倒，那些馬顯然是在吃東西，嘴里叼著草。”

At least two of the slain horses were pregnant and miscarried after being shot, says Megan Goble, who lives near the site. Her family owns part of the land that has become home to the horses. She says the horses lived in two main herds, and she describes them as a mix of animals that were brought there by their owners and those that were born in the secluded area.

住在事發(fā)地點附近的梅根·戈貝爾說，至少有兩匹被殺的馬是懷孕后流產(chǎn)的。她的家族擁有這片土地的一部分，現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)成為了馬的家。她說，這些馬生活在兩個主要的畜群中，她說這些馬是由它們的主人帶到這里的動物和那些出生在偏僻地區(qū)的動物混合而成的。

"There's a lot of people within our community that go up there and feed them or just go see them or whatever, because, I mean, it's beautiful back there and it's a bunch of horses running," Goble says.

戈貝爾說:“我們社區(qū)里有很多人去那里喂它們，或者只是去看它們，因為，我的意思是，那里很漂亮，有一群馬在奔跑。”

Of the idea that someone would go into the area and shoot 15 horses, Goble says, "I mean, it's just horrific, and it's shook this community pretty good."

對于有人會進入該地區(qū)并射殺15匹馬的想法，戈貝爾說，“我的意思是，這太可怕了，這對這個社區(qū)造成了很大的影響。”

The sheriff told the Floyd Chronicle & Times that he put up $500 of the reward money himself. The rest has come from a local pet store and an animal rescue operation that has helped care for the free-roaming horses.

警長告訴《弗洛伊德紀事報》，他自己拿出了500美元的賞金。剩下的部分來自當?shù)匾患覍櫸锏旰鸵豁梽游锞仍袆樱撔袆訋椭疹欉@些自由游蕩的馬。

The first call about a group of dead horses came in on Monday, says Goble. That first call referred to as many as five carcasses. Goble, who works in animal rescue, says it took an extra day to begin realizing the full scope of the crime, as cold and stormy weather washed out roads and slowed search efforts.

戈貝爾說，關(guān)于一群死馬的第一個電話是在周一打來的。第一次通話提到了多達5具尸體。從事動物救援工作的戈貝爾說，由于寒冷和暴風(fēng)雨天氣沖毀了道路，減緩了搜救工作，他多花了一天時間才開始意識到整個犯罪過程。

When Goble and the deputies reached the area where the dead horses were, she says, "It was a lot worse than I would have imagined."

當戈貝爾和她的副手到達死馬所在的地方時，她說，“情況比我想象的要糟糕得多。”

"We found five of them that were relatively close together" in roughly a 50-yard space, Goble says. Others were more scattered, she says — and she believes there may be other dead horses that still haven't been found.

戈貝爾說:“我們在大約50碼的空間里發(fā)現(xiàn)了5個相對靠近的尸體。”她說，其他的馬比較分散，她相信可能還有其他的死馬還沒有找到。

"I've done rescue for a long time. I've seen some pretty bad things," Goble says. She adds, "This was different. This was a very large act of evil, for lack of a better term. I mean, there's no other way that I can describe it. Somebody went out of their way to go up there and kill these horses, and not even quickly, for no reason."

“我做救援工作很長時間了。我見過一些非常糟糕的事情，”Goble說。她補充道:“這是不同的。這是一個非常大的惡行，因為沒有更好的詞來形容。我的意思是，沒有其他的方法可以描述它。有人不顧一切地跑到那里去殺了那些馬，而且殺得非?？?，沒有任何理由。”