A two-week-old miniature donkey was stolen before being tortured, shot dead and dumped back in the paddock where she vanished.
Pleuntje, a rare reddish-coated filly, disappeared from a donkey sanctuary on Monday evening.
Six people searched for the tiny animal for hours before returning at first light, but found no trace of her. Yet the following afternoon, Pleuntje’s body mysteriously appeared in the same paddock; staff said they had searched dozens of times.
She had been shot through the chest and suffered horrific injuries to her neck, legs and eye. Owner Marlhene Mouws believes thieves climbed over a fence and lifted the foal into a waiting vehicle before later returning her body when they realised she would be difficult to sell.
Pleuntje had no microchip, passport or vaccinations, making a black-market sale difficult despite miniature donkeys with papers reportedly being worth up to £13,000.
The baby lived at Stichting Het Ezelpaleis, a sanctuary for neglected and abused donkeys on a quiet road in Baarle-Nassau, the Netherlands.
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Mouws locked up at around 7:30 pm before returning to feed the herd and discovering Pleuntje was missing. Six people searched until 1:30 am before resuming their efforts at first light.
A £850 reward was offered, and an appeal was shared across the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France. But at around 1 pm on Tuesday, Mouws was showing visitors around when she spotted Pleuntje’s body.
She said: ‘She was lying there with a gunshot wound in the side of her chest. We had been over that field 50 times.’
The bullet reportedly entered above the foal’s left hip and exited through the right side of her chest. She also had injuries to her neck and legs, and one eye hanging out.
Mouws believes Pleuntje was deliberately targeted because of her distinctive reddish colouring, while another foal was left behind.
She said: ‘Who would do something like this to a baby that still has no teeth?’
The remote sanctuary has CCTV cameras, although none cover the meadow itself. Anyone who saw or heard anything suspicious on Monday evening has been urged to contact the authorities.
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