River walkers find grisly horse remains

People walking beside a river in Manawatu came upon a grisly pile of horse innards and the dead beast's head.

The large pile of horse organs lay across a track near Ashhurst and 30m away the head was propped up against rocks immersed in water.

Constable Andy Nicholls said the find was made on Wednesday night.

He added: "We have had no calls about missing horses from paddocks. Because of what's been dumped it looks like they have used the meat for dogs.

"We have no idea who has dumped it there but we were keen to move it."

Horizons Regional Council were called in and organised contractors to remove the remains yesterday.

Ewan Robertson of Horizon's compliance team said the contractors would check the remains for any brands and contact the SPCA if there were any animal welfare issues.

- nzpa