A SCHOOLBOY today blasted gun-toting thugs after his family's horse was shot in the neck.

The horse, called William, who belongs to the Farran family, of Haslingden Old Road, Blackburn, was shot with a pellet gun while it grazed in a field at Whitebirk.

Brian Farran, 14, who rides the horse and whose mother Jean takes him to shows, described the shooting as "shocking".

He said it was the second such incident in recent weeks and added: "I don't understand why anybody would want to do this. What has the horse done to harm anybody? "I don't think he is in a great deal of pain, but there is a hole in his neck where the pellet went in and he did bleed."

Brian, a pupil at Our Lady and St John RC School, added: "How can the horse be expected to trust people when somebody comes along and does something like this.

"There must be somebody out there who hates horses or something for this to have happened twice. All William was doing was grazing in the field doing no harm to anybody."

The Farran family are now planning to move the horse to were it will not be left at the mercy of the pellet gun thugs. The family have reported the incident to the police although the four-year-old horse was not badly injured in the incident.

A police spokesman said: "We have been made aware of the incident and we are looking into it."

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