A woman says her daughter’s miniature horse was attacked and killed by two vicious dogs that came onto a farm in Wonder Lake. The dogs were released to their owner.
Kristin Mills told Lake and McHenry County Scanner that she received a call in the morning of July 31 from the owner of a barn where her family boards their two horses in Wonder Lake.
The owner told her that her daughter’s miniature horse, Freya, had been attacked by dogs and the family needed to come to the barn.
Mills said she arrived about 25 minutes later and found the dogs were still in Freya’s pen “guarding their kill.”
“We were unable to get to Freya to assess her condition because each time we would get near her pen, the two dogs, a husky mix and a pitbull, would lunge out of her pen, viciously if we got near,” Mills said.
The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office and Wonder Lake Police Department, along with animal control, arrived at the scene.
Animal control officers observed what was happening and one of the officers was able to get the dogs to come out of Freya’s pen.
Officers were only able to get the pitbull onto a leash because the husky mix was “unapproachable and vicious to try to get ahold of,” Mills said.
The officers were able to get the owner’s information from the pitbull’s tag.
They called the dogs’ owner, who arrived a short time later and took possession of both dogs.
The [animal control] officers showed them how horrific the scene was and suggested city ordinance tickets were also given to dog owner as well as tickets from [animal control],” Mills said.
Mills said the dogs’ owner refused to see the deceased horse. “We all told the dog owner to come and see the damage that had been done to Freya, she was taken down by her back end and her throat was ripped out by the dogs.”
“The dog owner said she did not care to see it. I told her our young daughter had to see it in order to say goodbye to her pony so she could certainly look at the pony,” Mills added.
The woman said she has since opened a dangerous dog investigation with animal control and retained a lawyer.
“Our family is very sad and our daughter is just heartbroken,” Mills said.
She said that many people in the area have reached out to let her know that the two dogs are “constantly on the loose and very vicious to people and animals.”