OUTER BANKS, N.C. — A wild horse that’s part of a herd that has roamed North Carolina’s Outer Banks for centuries has died after getting tangled in wire and suffering from heat stroke, officials said.
Hurricane, a 10-year-old stallion, was euthanized after his organs began to fail, the Corolla Wild Horse Fund said in a Facebook post.
On Friday morning, a Dominion Power worker found the horse on the ground tangled in fencing wire and called the group. After staffers freed Hurricane, he stood up and walked away with only mild injuries to his leg. But staffers then saw him collapse.
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The horse was taken to the rescue farm to be seen by a vet, but was “displaying neurological symptoms and could not stand, or even lay with his head upright.”
He didn’t respond to any treatment and by evening, he went into organ failure. The vet determined he had gone into heat stroke from struggling and stressing after being tangled for several hours. The team decided to humanely euthanize him to end his suffering.
The Corolla Wild Horse Fund is asking property owners to check their yards for anything that could be dangerous for the wild horses.
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