Horse dragged 100 yards behind truck

A horse that was tied to truck and dragged more than 100 yards down an asphalt road last month — scraping big chunks of hide from its side — is recovering at a rescue shelter, and authorities are searching for the man who drove the pickup.

Bastrop County is pursuing an animal cruelty case against Mariano Resendiz Villafuerta, 43, who has not been found. A previous warrant for cruelty was replaced Wednesday with a stiffer charge of cruelty to livestock animals by tripping, a state jail felony.

“This is something beyond horrible,” said Darla Cherry, president and executive director of Meadow Haven Horse Rescue in Nixon, where the horse is recovering and doing well.

According to the Bastrop County sheriff's office, a deputy responded to a call of animal cruelty on Nov. 10 in Del Valle near Austin. A witness said he had spotted a lost horse on the road when a white Ford F-150 pickup truck pulled up. The driver, identified as Villafuerta, took control of the horse and tied it to the truck's hitch.

Maureen Spruill cares for a horse that was dragged behind a pickup truck last month in Bastrop County. Maureen Spruill cares for a horse that was dragged behind a pickup truck last month in Bastrop County. Photo: Bob Owen, San Antonio Express-News Photo: Bob Owen, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Horse dragged 100 yards behind truck 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

The driver took off and accelerated to a “high rate of speed with the horse still tied to the hitch of the truck,” a sheriff's affidavit alleges. The horse had trouble keeping up, fell on its side, and was dragged about 100 yards.

The driver got out of the truck and kicked the horse in the neck until the animal stood up. He then grabbed the horse's lead rope and ran it down the driveway of a nearby house, the affidavit says.

Authorities are asking for the public's help in tracking down Villafuerta. The license plate of the Ford F-150 is BU1-3787.

Cherry, who cares for 88 abandoned and neglected horses at Meadow Haven, said the allegations of animal cruelty are among the worst she's heard.

“I mostly get starved horses, emancipated horses,” Cherry said. “Those are pretty bad in their own right. But this is so horrific.”

She estimated the male horse is about six or seven years old. Besides his torn hide, the animal also suffered a gash near its eye. But the wounds are healing.

Cherry said a few marks on the horse's head suggest a halter or bridle was pulled too hard in the past, and marks on the horse's back could mean a saddle was too tight. But there were no signs of injuries that were as bad as the scrape marks.

The horse isn't jittery around people and enjoys being washed and petted.

“We're going to rehabilitate him, then we'll evaluate him,” Cherry said. “If he is sound enough, we'll adopt him out.”

They don't know the horse's name. So Cherry's husband came up with a new nickname — Dragster.

jtedesco@express-news.net