Two horses slain in Madera Co. pasture, suspect in fatal shooting of mares near Highway 41 sought.

MADERA -- Two mares were shot to death over the weekend in a foothill pasture beside Highway 41, and the Madera County Sheriff's Department is asking the public's help to find out who did it.

Sheriff's investigators believe the mares were shot late Friday or early Saturday in a 40-acre pasture just north of the Yosemite Lakes Park turnoff. But the horses' owner, who declined to be identified, did not discover the carcasses until Monday, said Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Erica Stuart. A third horse in the pasture was unharmed.

The mares, ages 5 and 7, were valued at about $4,000 each.

The horses were 100 feet to 150 feet from the roadway when they were shot, one in the head and one in the neck, Stuart said. Investigators believe both mares lived for some time after they were shot.

The family that owned the mares told investigators that they had been using the roadside pasture for the past four years. They had planned to breed the two mares that were shot, Stuart said.

The shootings angered some Madera County horse owners.

"I'm outraged. This is just symptom of Madera County's growth," said lifelong Madera County cattleman Clay Daulton, who said the population growth has attracted urban problems to the rural county.

But Daulton said there was little ranchers and horse owners can do to prevent such shootings when horses are pastured beside rural roads.

The Sheriff's Department is asking anyone who may have seen a car or truck parked along the north side of Highway 41 or who may have heard gunshots in the area to contact the department at (559) 675-7770 or Crime Stoppers at (559) 498-7867.

The Highway 41 incident was not the first in California this year. Humane Society officials reported that four cattle and three deer were found fatally shot in a Marin County field. A fifth cow was found fatally shot earlier this year in Sonoma County. In Alameda County, 23 goats deployed in a brush clearance project were killed by gunfire.

A rash of shootings in 2005 near the Fresno County community of Minkler left four horses dead and two injured.

In Novato, Marin Humane Society animal services director Cindy Machado lamented the shootings of animals in fields by passersby.

"We just don't expect peaceful pastures to turn into battlefields and war zones for our animals," Machado said.

The reporter can be reached at cmccarthy@fresnobee.com or (559)675-6804.