在肯塔基州的乡村，15匹马被猎杀

在肯塔基州的乡村，15匹马被猎杀

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.

在肯塔基州东部的树林里，15匹马被射杀，当局称这是残忍和不人道的罪行，目前他们正在努力解决。地方当局悬赏1500美元，这笔钱来自希望将凶手绳之以法的人的捐款。

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.

这些马是在佛洛伊德县与邻近的派克县边界附近的一个已修复的露天矿场发现的。当地人说，多年来，有30多匹马在这片崎岖偏僻的土地上游荡。但本周情况发生了可怕的变化。

"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.

“这看起来就像一个只有马的战场——我们发现有15匹马死亡。在我们看来，所有15人都是被枪杀的。” 弗洛伊德县警长约翰·亨特告诉当地电视台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."

“这是非常不人道的，”亨特说，“这是一种非常残忍的行为，一个人显然没有其他事情可做，把马射倒，那些马显然是在吃东西，嘴里叼着草。”

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.

住在事发地点附近的梅根·戈贝尔说，至少有两匹被杀的马是怀孕后流产的。她的家族拥有这片土地的一部分，现在已经成为了马的家。她说，这些马生活在两个主要的畜群中，她说这些马是由它们的主人带到这里的动物和那些出生在偏僻地区的动物混合而成的。

"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.

戈贝尔说:“我们社区里有很多人去那里喂它们，或者只是去看它们，因为，我的意思是，那里很漂亮，有一群马在奔跑。”

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."

对于有人会进入该地区并射杀15匹马的想法，戈贝尔说，“我的意思是，这太可怕了，这对这个社区造成了很大的影响。”

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.

警长告诉《弗洛伊德纪事报》，他自己拿出了500美元的赏金。剩下的部分来自当地一家宠物店和一项动物救援行动，该行动帮助照顾这些自由游荡的马。

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.

戈贝尔说，关于一群死马的第一个电话是在周一打来的。第一次通话提到了多达5具尸体。从事动物救援工作的戈贝尔说，由于寒冷和暴风雨天气冲毁了道路，减缓了搜救工作，他多花了一天时间才开始意识到整个犯罪过程。

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."

当戈贝尔和她的副手到达死马所在的地方时，她说，“情况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.

戈贝尔说:“我们在大约50码的空间里发现了5个相对靠近的尸体。”她说，其他的马比较分散，她相信可能还有其他的死马还没有找到。

"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."

“我做救援工作很长时间了。我见过一些非常糟糕的事情，”Goble说。她补充道:“这是不同的。这是一个非常大的恶行，因为没有更好的词来形容。我的意思是，没有其他的方法可以描述它。有人不顾一切地跑到那里去杀了那些马，而且杀得非常快，没有任何理由。”