A 20-year-old pony was found dead Friday afternoon in a meadow in Rebets, east of Rouen, we learned from the gendarmes on Saturday.
The animal was emasculated, a priori post mortem, according to the first observations of technicians and a veterinarian.
The cut is clean, which suggests that there was human intervention, the same source said.
The Rouen prosecutor's office opened an investigation entrusted to the Rouen research brigade and the research section.
Since August, acts of mutilation, mainly of horses, sometimes fatal, have been reported throughout the territory. About 200 investigations have been opened but only about thirty cases are considered to be of human nature, according to the gendarmerie.