‘Trail of blood’: Woman accused of dragging horse behind ATV

DEKALB COUNTY, Ala. — A northern Alabama woman is accused of dragging a horse behind an all-terrain vehicle for nearly a half-mile, leaving the animal with several injuries, authorities said.

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Carla Bohanon, 40, of Crossville, was arrested on Aug. 14 and charged with animal cruelty after an incident that involved a horse named Whiskey Glasses, WHNT-TV reported.

According to court documents, a deputy with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office and officers with the Geraldine Police Department responded to a home on Aug. 5, according to the television station.

Authorities said they found a female horse named Whiskey Glasses with visible injuries to its left side, AL.com reported. The horse was favoring her right rear hoof and there was blood on the highway in front of the residence, the news outlet reported.

The report added that the horse was missing a large part of both rear hooves. The animal also suffered bruising on her left shoulder and left front leg and had abrasions under her chin, AL.com reported. She also had abrasions on both sides of her head behind the ears “consistent with where a halter would pull on her head.”

A woman who arrived on an ATV, later identified as Bohanon, said the horse belonged to her, WHNT reported. Deputies said she gave “confusing an contradictive” statements, alternately telling authorities that she did not drag the horse, which got “road rash,” and that she had been trying to teach the animal to ride as she led with the ATV, according to the television station.

Bohanon allegedly told police that she “stopped dragging the horse once it fell into the roadway,” WHNT reported.

A veterinary assistant who was treating the horse offered to buy the horse from Bohanon, who agreed to sell the animal for $200, AL.com reported.

The assistant later told a deputy that there was a “blood trail” for nearly a half-mile on the road, adding the horse “would have had to have been dragged prior to that before the hooves were worn down to bleed.”

Bohanon was later arrested and booked into the DeKalb County Jail, WHNT reported. She was later released after posting $3,500 bail, according to the television station.