North Carolina law enforcement authorities hope the public can help find whoever is responsible for shooting and killing a horse while it grazed in its Wake County pasture.

Robert Johnson, operations chief for the Wake County Sheriff's Department, said deputies responded to a call from an owner who found her horse dead in its pasture on March 14. The shooting likely took place in the late hours of March 13, Johnson said.

“We don't have a motive in this case, but we don't think it was a hunting incident,” Johnson said. “All I can say is that we are taking the incident very seriously.”

He declined to disclose further details of the case, which remains under investigation