A Veterinarian Is Missing After Video Shows Him Kicking Horse's Head
Authorities are currently searching for a Las Vegas veterinarian, who went missing amid backlash after video showed him kicking a horse in the head.
According to FOX5 in Las Vegas, authorities are in Lake Mead looking for Dr. Shawn D. Freher. The National Park Service is working with Las Vegas Metro Police in this search and rescue effort.
The news station reports that Freher went missing after he was harassed online after video of the heinous act began circulating on social media. Amid the backlash, Freher himself took to social media and shared his side of the story.
"I did not blatantly haul off and kick this horse as it appears in the video. That was not my intention at all" he said, via KTLA5. "It was done simply to get the horse in a better position so that he could breathe and get up and move so I could again try to anesthetize."
The post did not include an apology, but he did admit to kicking the horse.
"But yes I did kick him right in the chin and I very much do apologize and wish this never happened," he wrote.
According to multiple reports, Freher arrived to a Nevada ranch on Thursday to administer anesthetic shots for some of the horses on the property. The family said Freher had been working with them since August 2024.
But one of the family members purportedly saw him kick the horse.
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"I had started having a severe anxiety attack and couldn't breathe myself," the family member said. "I was already on the ground and my daughter picked up the phone and hit record, and that's when she got him on videotape, kicking him."
The horse suffered abrasions to the skull. The day after the incident, the family reportedly filed an animal abuse report with the Nye County Sheriff's Office.
As it stands now, multiple agencies are searching for Freher. The circumstances of his disappearance remain a mystery.