HARRISONVILLE, Mo. — A Harrisonville man is facing an animal abuse charge and a horse is dead after it was allegedly pulled behind a truck and suffered gruesome injuries.

Roy V. Hammond, 74, was charged on Tuesday, March 29 with animal abuse – torture and/or mutilation while animal was alive.

A Cass County sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to an area on East Orient Cemetery Road around 2:40 p.m. Tuesday on a report of a horse being dragged behind a truck. Upon arrival, the officer saw Hammond standing behind his truck with a light-colored horse lying in the eastbound lane of the road.

Police said the officer noticed an extensive trail of blood in both lanes as he approached the scene. As he got closer, he saw blood coming from the horse’s feet. The officer said the horse appeared to be physically exhausted, breathing heavily, and soaked in sweat. Hammond was reportedly attempting to get the horse back on its feet.

As the horse stood, the officer said it rocked back and forth between its left and right feet, as if in significant pain, and blood continued to pool at its feet. Hammond attempted to get the horse to walk, but it struggled to walk any distance.

He told the officer the horse had broken away from him five times so he tied it to his truck and pulled it behind his truck. He said that the horse would be “okay with some oil on her feet and rest,” according to court documents.

At that point, the horse was seized as evidence and transported to the Pleasant Hill Veterinary Clinic, and Hammond was arrested.

“This is a pretty severe case, it wasn’t a matter of neglect where the animal wasn’t fed or cared for, there was an intentional act by a human being to drag the animal down the road way causing ultimately for the animal to die. It’s pretty bad,” said Major Jeff Weber from the Cass County Sheriff’s Department.

Police followed the blood trail in the eastbound lane of Orient Cemetery to the intersection at 245th Street, at which point the trail turned around and continued in the westbound lane back to where Hammond was first sighted by the officer.

The total distance reportedly measured approximately 1.2 miles.

Veterinarians at the Pleasant Hill Vet Clinic said the injuries were life-threatening. They observed the horse’s hoof had been ground smooth, and reported multiple wounds to the fleshy portions of its feet, along with open wounds on the flesh around the hooves. One veterinarian said the open wounds were discolored and brown like “cooked meat,” likely due to frictional heat from being dragged against the roadway.

“We could tell that she had been through a lot,” said Dr. Zachary Patterson.

Dr. Patterson went on to say, however, that besides the injuries she suffered on Tuesday, the horse was in relatively good condition.

Veterinarians initially said the horse’s fate was uncertain, but FOX 4 learned on Wednesday that she died. The horse was reportedly scheduled to be euthanized Wednesday morning, but died on its own before that happened.

Roy “Vance” Hammond says he was just trying to get the horse under control. He says the horse went berserk and was a danger to people at the time. He says he’s taken care of horses his whole life, and a horse has never acted this way before.

After a quick check of online criminal records, FOX 4 discovered Hammond has never been charged with another crime in Missouri.

Hammond was released from custody after posting $10,000 bond. A court date has not yet been set.

A Change.org petition was started by a user named Michelle Griffinfeather, who claims to live near Hammond, aiming to have any remaining animals removed from Hammond’s property saying “[t]he authorities need to step in and remove any remaining animals he has and ban him from owning animals for the rest of his life.”

The petition is directed to the Human Society of Missouri and Judge J. Michael Rumley.

It has 1,074 signatures of its 1,500 goal as of Monday afternoon.