Mystery Animal Attacks Horse

Posted by: Loren Coleman on October 3rd, 2007

Troopers in Fredonia [New York] are looking into a report that an unknown wild animal attacked an Arabian horse around 11 pm Thursday night [September 27, 2007].

Investigators say the horse suffered numerous bite and claw marks in the attack in a pasture on Harmon Hill Road in the town of Pomfret. The animal was treated by a local vet and is expected to be ok.

Local residents are urged to call the state police at Fredonia with information about this or any future sightings or incidents with large non-domestic animals. by Greg Borowski, Producer, “State Police Investigating Attack On Horse,” Sept. 28, and Oct. 1, 2007, WGRZ-TV.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.


28 Responses to “Mystery Animal Attacks Horse”

  1. Jeremy_Wells responds:

    Well… if it turns out to be a panther, you know its just going to be someone’s escaped pet. *There are no large predators on the east coast. Pay no attention to the cougar behind the curtain*

  2. Maine Crypto responds:

    I agree, we know all to well how close minded folks seem to be on the subject, never mind all of the eyewitnesses and evidence! Is there any way to get an idea of what it was by the bite marks? Knowing horses, I can’t imagine a canine attacking an Arabian, I am leaning towards cougar!

  3. bill green responds:

    hey loren & everyone great article about a mystery animal attacks a horse. maybe a couger or panther might have attacked the horse. but upstate new york forests is wide known for its sasquatch activity. what im to say here is this maybe the possible sasquatch creature killed the horse as form of food resource. but kind of other wildlife killed the horse as well in new york forests. just my opinion. thanks bill green 🙂

  4. wrath of the real responds:

    The East Coast is a habitat for bears. They say when a bear tastes human flesh it aquires a taste for it, or at least consideres it an easy prey. Who knows maybe a horse in an enclosed pasture is just as easy a prey. When you gotta eat, you gotta eat. Just my 2 cents

  5. mystery_man responds:

    I am going with the big cat theory as well, because that’s the type of predator I think is most likely to give it a go in this case. The thing is that if this was a full grown, healthy Arabian horse, there is easier prey to be had. A healthy horse is quite strong, has sharp hooves, and could be formidable when cornered, which probably explains why it survived the ordeal. I think the possibility of an escaped exotic would make sense because if it has been given its food all its life, it might not know any better and thus could be more inclined to go after a horse locked away in its pasture. Since it gave up the chase and could have sustained injuries itself, I’d say it learned that lesson.

  6. rbhess responds:

    The odd thing is, Fredonia is down near the south-west corner of the state (I’m from NY, and I’m familiar with the area) very close to Lake Erie. Of course, it is very rural… but nevertheless, I’d expect a cougar attack/sighting to be made up in or near the Adirondacks first—which is at the opposite end of NY—rather than down in the western end of the Southern Tier. As I’ve stated here before—I have good reason to believe that there are cougars in Upstate NY… but I have to leave it at that, as the information is sensitive. All the same—I’d expect such a thing in the north of the state… not the southwest.

    On the other hand, we’ve had an apparently increasing population of black bears in the Southern Tier, and these presumably came in through Pennsylvania. Fredonia’s about an hour or so from the Pennsylvania border… I haven’t heard anything about bears out that way, but I suppose it’s possible.

    Then again, a black bear attacking a horse? Not that a bear wouldn’t, or couldn’t…. but seems a bit strange.

    A rabid bobcat also isn’t out of the question, though I think unlikely.

    If a cougar—no one will be admitting it, you can be assured of that. And again—I think that’s for the best. The animals are there, and for now the best way to protect them is for Conservation officers to pretend they aren’t, and play the denial game.

  7. Bob Michaels responds:

    The Horse was not killed, scratches and bites, no reports of blood loss.It`s faily easy to determine the attacker with a DNA analysis.

  8. mystery_man responds:

    rbhess- That’s pretty much what I think about the culprit being a bear. A bear COULD do it, and I suppose MIGHT, but I just don’t see a bear trying to attack a horse like that. It just isn’t the first animal that pops into my mind when looking at what little we have to go on here. A bear is possible, I guess, but it seems somewhat odd to me as well. I’d like to know of anything that turns up regarding the examination of the wounds, as they could give us a better idea of what it was. Of course, like you say, it is probably in the best interest of any cougar population if that sort of information doesn’t get splashed all over the news.

  9. mystery_man responds:

    Going back to the escaped exotic idea, I am wondering if anyone can provide some information about the laws concerning exotic pets are in the area and what the liklihood of anyone keeping illegal exotics might be? This might be helpful when weighing the possibility that an escaped big cat did this. I am not familiar with this area at all, so any infomation would be appreciated.

  10. rbhess responds:

    Yeah, mystery_man…. we’ll have to see if there’s any follow-up on this story in the media. I suppose it could have even been coyotes, though that’s less likely (though there are lots of coyotes in upstate NY—or even a single rabid coyote, or dog.

    Wolves are also a question… but again, for the same reason with the cougar, I can’t go into that. But again—I wouldn’t think wolves would be an issue in the southwestern end of the state. The Adirondacks, yes. But out near Lake Erie? No.

    We’ll just have to hope there’s more about this in the future, though I didn’t see any indication in the story that anyone was going to pursue this by testing… did I miss that?

  11. squatchwatcher responds:

    Hey everybody! This mysterious attack sounds almost exactly like an attack that occurred about a month ago here in the Dakotas in a little town called Loomis. The horse was wounded but will survive. It had bite marks on the back of the neck and the base of the skull. No deep claw marks. So far the Game, Fish, and Parks are saying it was NOT a lion that attacked this animal. So that’s pretty weird that there would be a similar attack 1000 mileas away.

  12. rbhess responds:

    mystery_man: I’m not certain about it, but if memory serves me, somebody in the next county over from me (here in Upstate NY) had a sort of “amateur zoo” a few years back which included a tiger. I don’t recall what the legality of this was, but I believe the place was shut down when someone got mauled.

  13. mystery_man responds:

    rbhess- No, they didn’t mention any follow up testing. I just assumed that with a news making story like this about a domestic horse getting attacked, someone might be curious about what excactly did it and pursue the matter further. I suppose they may just leave it at that, but I would expect someone to be determined enough to know what did it to give the claw and bite marks a good look.

  14. rbhess responds:

    mystery_man: I hope you’re right, but I suppose it would depend on the intrepidity of the investigating officer (from the State Police), and/or the animal’s owner, and/or the veterinarian… and also perhaps on whether any Environmental officers were called in. I don’t know for certain that there’s any actual rule of procedure for this sort of thing that calls for DNA testing. I do know, however, that too often in instances such as this, what could and perhaps should be done isn’t always done.

  15. shumway10973 responds:

    Refraining from naming a specific predator, there are only a few anywhere in America that would even attempt a horse. Single animal(s) the panther/cougar would be on the top of my list. If there is evidence this was a pack, then wolves, but we also know that wolves don’t live out there (anymore?). The only other creature I know of mean enough to try would be a grizzly bear, and I don’t remember ever hearing of grizzlies out that direction. The problem with denying the existence of panthers is that even when white man first set foot on American soil, there was already a small number of predators able to do this. So now that something like this happens, their choice(s) of what did this is extremely narrow.

  16. wrath of the real responds:

    I don’t think DNA testing is really worth the cost for these types of attacks. Not by the police anyway. Not unless they felt that humans could also be attacked. You kind of have to know someone who is willing to do it for little or no cost. I would love to think it was a cougar or another exotic feline but let’s face it sometime the most obvious answer is usually the best. I agree a bear (especially a black bear) is unlikely to attack a horse, but it is a more reasonable theory than an escaped pet from an illegal exotic smuggling ring. Not trying to sound like a jerk, just playing devil’s advocate.

  17. sschaper responds:

    I’d have to agree. It sure sounds like a lion. My Aunt had one of her horses attacked by one in southern Montana a couple weeks back.

  18. Daryl Colyer responds:

    Sounds like cougar to me.

    It would not be the first time I’ve heard of it happening.

  19. mrbf2007 responds:

    Bill Green, I do not think this attack has ANYTHING to do with Sasquatch. The animal in question was not seen, so we do not know for sure exactly what attacked the horse. It sounds more likely to be a big cat of some sort. The animal had claws and it bit the horse. It would be pretty easy to get DNA from that and determine that it is more than likely a big cat, NOT a Sasquatch.

  20. Crypto-Chrib responds:

    There was a similar story from Washington, CT a few years ago. A district court judge’s horse was scratched up a bit. I wish I could find that article. Also, a mother and son waiting for a school bus in Shelton, Ct reported seeing a cougar that scared them into their car. It hung around until a policeman showed up and then ran off into the woods. That was just a couple of weeks ago. Of course, local Fish and Game officials gave the same tired statement. No Eastern Cougars, possible released pet or misidentification.

  21. jules responds:

    There are still a few states that allow people to own exotic cats. Sure sounds like a cat attack to me.

  22. scotty425 responds:

    Sounds like a cougar to me. I’ve been hearing basically the same story for about 5 years here in Southern Illinois that someone’s horse had come in all clawed up and bitten and the attack was attributed to a cougar. Now, I used to believe that there were NO wild cougars in Illinois, that is until a buddy of mine showed me pictures taken with his trail camera that while a bit blurry, clearly show a cougar, not a bobcat, coyote or big yellow tomcat. The pictures were taken less than a month ago near a small town called Johnsonville. Also, I have a good friend whose father actually saw a cougar near Salem, less than 10 miles from where I live. I believe this sighting was sometime summer 2006. He also has horses. Coincidence?

  23. CryptoGoji responds:

    My vote goes to large cat. It just sounds like the evidance fits that type of culprit. Somebody is bound to suggest it, the local authority will say that no panthers live in this area, then somebody will be out hiking and get killed.

  24. Jeremy_Wells responds:

    I’ve been thinking about this a little more. Was there any indication in the story of where the bites and claw marks were at on the animal? Cougars typically dispatch their prey with a bite to the top of the head or neck, and more rarely with a bite to the throat (this is more canid behavior, and would be more likely to indicate coyotes, which we all know have been expanding their range eastward like gangbusters over the last couple of decades).
    Bears will also attack the head, but they aren’t going to drop out of a tree or otherwise jump onto the back of an animal, and because of their size and power, broken bones are more likely with a bear attack (i.e. they attack the head, but break the neck instead of severing/puncturing the way a cougar does).
    My gut just says cougar, but to be honest, there isn’t enough info in that article to judge the nature of the wounds.

  25. mystery_man responds:

    Jeremy_Wells- I think that there wouldn’t necessarily be bite wounds to the head or throat in this case since the horse survived and was apparently able to fend off the attacker. This was not a successful attack and if whatever did this had been able to leave a grievous wound to the neck or head, then most likely the horse would not be alive in ok condition. If the predator was unable to go in for a killing bite to the head or throat, there would be no indication of such a throat or head bite left behind, and so the culprit may have just left relatively minor scratches and bites. I would think that if the horse had actually been dispatched or seriously injured, we would be able to see more tell tale signs of how the predator intended to kill the horse. As it stands, there may be little to go on. But of course you are right, there is not really enough info to go on in the article as to the state of the wounds. I’m guessing they were fairly minor considering the horse got a vet check and wasn’t described as being in any kind of dire condition.

  26. jules responds:

    I think that either Iowa or Illinois still allow exotic cats as pets. (One heck of a kitty box, huh?) I agree with a previous comment about how a pet would not know what it could attack. Perhaps a horse was just too much for it to handle.

  27. John A. Lutz responds:

    In the last 6 weeks, there have been multiple cougar sightings in the following areas of New York State. Buffalo, Camden, Syracuse, Dundee, Jamestown, Tully, Carthage & Allegheny County. Also got a report of a horse attack on Tug Hill in May, 2007, that was never made public according to retired DEC officer who told us of this attack.
    In May, a Tioga Co, Pa 1,600 pound heifer was attacked by what looked like a cougar, sustaining injuries consistant to that predator. Go to http://www.easternpumaresearch.com to view pictures of that cow.

  28. Dashman responds:

    The nature of the wounds would give good insight as to what the animal was. Location and the patterns of the marks would tell you if it was a Cougar, Wolf, or any other type of creature. Every animal has a unique way of bring down prey.

    I also have a Horse that was attacked. There is a one inch by two inch hole in the area between her chest and left front leg. There are also small puncture marks covering the back of her two front legs and behind her chin. I’m stumped!

Sorry. Comments have been closed.

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