A critically endangered wild horse was euthanized on Saturday after it was struck by an off-road vehicle on a beach on the Outer Banks in North Carolina and sustained traumatic injuries, officials said on Monday.
The horse, a 10-year-old stallion named Bullwinkle, was a Banker horse, a breed that has lived on the Outer Banks, a long, skinny barrier island, since the 1500s.
Only about 200 Banker horses remain in the wild, said Meg Puckett, the director of herd management at the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, a nonprofit organization that has managed and protected the herd and its habitat in Corolla, a village on the northern end of the Outer Banks, since 1989. Bullwinkle’s herd numbered about 100.
“He was in the prime of his life, and went from being a symbol of what it means to be wild and free to a tragic example of how irresponsible, reckless human behavior can cause pain, suffering and irreparable damage to the herd in an instant,” the organization said on Facebook.
The Currituck County Sheriff’s Office arrested Porter Williamson, 57, of Chesapeake, Va., who was released on a $10,000 bond, the agency said in a post on its Facebook page. Mr. Williamson was charged with resisting a public officer. He had originally fled the scene but later returned when deputies were towing the vehicle, which was registered to him, the agency said. Upon being noticed, Mr. Williamson took off again, but deputies chased him on foot and caught him.
Rhonda Williamson was also charged with resisting a public officer and was released on a $5,000 bond, the agency said. Her relation to Mr. Williamson was not immediately clear.
The Corolla Wild Horse Fund received a call from a 911 dispatcher at 11:30 p.m. on Friday about a horse that had been hit by a vehicle while on a Corolla beach, the organization said in its post.
The caller, who had been surf fishing on the beach, had located Bullwinkle and sent pictures and videos to Ms. Puckett. The images showed Bullwinkle was standing and had weight on his legs, Ms. Puckett said.
Bullwinkle had significant skin trauma; a femur fracture in his right hind leg; torn ligaments and tendons in his left leg; and significant internal injuries and abdominal bleeding, she said.
The veterinarian arrived on scene to humanely euthanize him, the organization said.
“Bullwinkle’s injuries were severe and ultimately fatal,” the organization said in its Facebook post.
Thousands of Banker horses, which are the descendants of horses that belonged to Spanish explorers five centuries ago, once roamed the Outer Banks. But their numbers have dwindled, and there are only two herds left in the world: one in Corolla, on the northern end of the Outer Banks, and one in Shackleford Banks, on the southern end.
The herds are genetically unique and have adapted to live in their specific environment, Ms. Puckett said.
“When one of these horses dies, that’s it,” she said. “There is no other horse in the world you can bring in to repopulate the breed.”
Bullwinkle, one of the Corolla horses, earned his name because of his friendship with a horse named Rocky. He was a “true wild stallion” and fun to watch, Ms. Puckett said, adding that he was not habituated to humans that and he could be tenacious and aggressive and was driven to breed. On Thursday, a day before Bullwinkle was struck, the Corolla Wild Horse Fund posted a video on Facebook of him fighting with a stallion whose mares he had been trying to steal for weeks.
Bullwinkle was buried at the edge of that meadow, the organization said.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that he would have eventually had mares of his own and would have been producing foals,” Ms. Puckett said.
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