Arson That Killed 8 Horses Investigated as Hate Crime Against Gay Owner
Firefighters in rural Ohio are offering a $5,000 reward today for information about who was behind an Easter arson attack that killed eight horses, including a week-old colt, in a blaze being investigated as a hate crime against the animals’ gay owner.
Homophobic slurs like “Fags are freaks” and “Burn in hell” were discovered spray-painted on the smoldering wreckage of his barn. Authorities have launched a hate crime investigation, as Whitehouse is gay.
Neighbor and friend Bobbie Nelson said she believes those responsible for the arson “obviously don’t know [Whitehouse] very well, because he’s a sweet-hearted person, and how he lives his lifestyle is nobody’s business but his own.”
“To take it out on these innocent horses was beyond any fathom of what anybody should ever do to anybody,” another neighbor who worked with Whitehouse’s horses, Yvette Yeadon, also told WhizNews.
The dead animals were show horses. One of the eight, named Love, was a pregnant mare and about to give birth.