Police: “somebody knows” about horse shooting
Last Thursday night near Paturau, someone shot Felcon, Haleigh Payne's 12-year-old horse. Felcon survived but had to be put down the next morning because of the extent of his injuries.
Felcon was in a paddock with five other horses on the Payne family's farm at Paturau, so it seems unlikely that a hunter thinking he was a deer shot him accidentally.
"This is probably an aimed shot," said Sergeant Arthur Clarence of the Takaka Police. "The bullet has entered the killing area, in the shoulder region."
Haleigh's father Alf Payne explained that Felcon had been Haleigh's horse for a long time.
"He came to her as a very young horse and she broke him in to the saddle. It's been a very traumatic time for her. She's in her twenties so she's an adult, but it was very hard for her."
Mr Payne noticed something wrong with Felcon early on Friday morning and he sent Haleigh to investigate.
"She took her cell-phone with her and when she called me up and told me that someone had shot her horse, I didn't believe her," he said. "When my wife Sue and I got there we could see there was nothing we could do for the horse so I put him down. We buried him in his favourite paddock among some native trees."
Sergeant Clarence said that he was sure somebody would know about this incident.
"Someone will know who was out that way shooting last Thursday night," he said. "At some stage a vehicle, probably a Toyota, has gone through a fence on the Payne's property about 400 metres from where the shooting took place, and lost an indicator light. It may or may not be connected to the shooting, but we'd like to hear about it as well, so we can maybe eliminate it from our enquiries. We'd like to hear from anyone who knows anything at all about this incident."
Sergeant Clarence said that it was particularly disturbing that people were behaving irresponsibly with firearms when there were large numbers of people visiting the western part of Golden Bay.
"There's been a big increase in the numbers of people getting out that way," he said. "That means that firearm safety is even more important. Anyone doing stupid things with a firearm will have their licence revoked for sure."
Mr and Mrs Payne say that farm animals have been shot in the Paturau area before and she is worried about people shooting after they have been drinking alcohol.
"It's like some people come out here and think that because they're so far from town they don't have to worry. There are lots of freedom campers here now. You have to worry for their safety," said Mrs Payne.
"I've had a spotlight shone on me a few times." said Mr Payne. "It's pretty scary when you know that the person doing the spotlighting is armed and you don't know whether they're sober or not."
Neil Wilson
