SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY (CBS13) – The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Department and Animal Control officers are investigating a horrific case of animal abuse after the body of a horse was found mutilated Monday morning.

The young stallion was found just off Atkins Road just east of Lockeford.

CLICK HERE to see unblurred photo of horse. **WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGE***

Its throat had been slit and its tail allegedly cut off.

A woman who spotted the horse called CBS13 and the sheriff’s office.

“It’s murder and it’s something that needs to be addressed,” said Kate Montgomery, who runs a horse rescue group nearby.

Montgomery suspects the owner of the horse might have grown frustrated in trying to train it.

“This to me speaks of someone who was angry,” she said.

Deputies believe the horse was killed somewhere else and then dumped because there was no blood at the scnene. The horse’s hooves were tied together and then to a metal post, so the killer possibly pulled the horse out of a trailer turned casket just by driving away.