Wyoming authorities have arrested a woman accused of defrauding contributors to her equine rescue operation.

Park County Sheriff's Department Public Information Officer C. Lance Mathess said, acting on a warrant, sheriff's deputies traveled to Kentucky to arrest Catherine M. Petersen on July 11. Peterson was on parole after being incarcerated in Kentucky for misusing her employer's funds, he said.

Mathess said the Wyoming warrant stemmed from 2009 charges accusing Peterson of raising funds to save horses from slaughter and to pay for eye surgery for a rescued horse, Mathess said.

“She allegedly would (raise) the money to buy horses that would be sold for slaughter, but never bought those horses,” Mathess said. “And, in one case, she claimed to have raised funds for a horse's eye surgery that the horse's adopter said had never taken place