Owners in Manatee County, Florida, are looking for new ways to protect their animals after a horse was stolen from his stall and killed and dismembered, presumably for meat.

Manatee County Sheriff’s Office (MSO) spokesman Dave Bristow said that on Oct. 24, deputies responded to a call from horse owner Debbie Stephens, reporting that in the early morning hours of the weekend, her show horse had been stolen from its stall in a barn attached to her home in Palmetto. She later found the horse’s slaughtered remains on her property.

“Upon MSO’s arrival, the horse was found dead, large portions of meat cut from it and missing,” the investigator’s report said.

Published reports indicated that Stephens had recently purchased and imported the horse, a 12-year-old Selle Francais gelding named Phedras De Blondrel. Phedras De Blondrel was meant to continue his Grand Prix jumping career in the United States, reports say