An arrest has been made in the case involving a Virginia deer hunter suspected of shooting a family’s pet horse.
Jeffrey Mayo, of Mineral, was charged with reckless handling of a firearm and discharging a firearm within 100 yards of an occupied dwelling, the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday.
“It was determined through the investigation that the suspect was hunting and had fired three shots at a deer while it was running,” the agency stated in a news release.
ABC 8 News reports that the 24-year-old quarter horse, named Penny, suffered wounds to her chest and lung during the Nov. 27 incident in Ashland.
Alexander Gaudino, Penny’s caretaker, said that after seeing the horse bleeding from her side he initially thought she had been injured by barbed wire. “We walked over there and she wouldn’t move; we were in complete shock,” Gaudino said.
A GoFundMe page was created two days later, with Kim Boyd Gaudino writing, “Our family pet of 20 years was shot in the yard the night before Thanksgiving. We are asking for help with medical expenses.”
On Nov. 30 the post was updated to reveal that Penny was “fighting to live” but the next day Penny was said to be “doing amazing well.”
Penny, who received care from the family’s veterinarian, has since recovered.
The investigation was conducted in conjunction with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
–Images showing Penny during her recovery are courtesy of the Gaudino family