CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / RIVERSIDE
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Animal cruelty charges have been filed against a Riverside County man who is accused of fatally beating a horse with a sledgehammer and beheading it with a chain saw.
Jack Ziniuk was charged Wednesday in Superior Court with two counts. The district attorney’s office says one count is based on physical injury to the horse and includes the use of a deadly weapon, the sledgehammer. The second count is based on neglect of the horse. Prosecutors say more charges may be filed based on the decapitation.
The 64-year-old Ziniuk was arrested Sunday after he called sheriff’s deputies to his Anza home, saying his horse was having seizures after being attacked by dogs and needed to be put down.
Officials say deputies found that the horse had been struck on the head and decapitated.
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