Meg Puckett, herd manager for the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, was clearly shaken last weekend following the death of Bullwinkle, a 10-year-old stallion struck by the driver of a side-by-side utility vehicle.
Bystanders saw it happen just before midnight Friday on the Carova Beach and alerted law enforcement. The horse had to be euthanized because of the extent of his injuries.
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“It is just unimaginable. It’s just hard to wrap your head around,” Puckett said.
The Currituck County Sheriff’s Department said it arrested Porter Williamson, 57, of Chesapeake, Virginia, who was charged with resisting, delaying and obstructing law enforcement. He was placed under a $10,000 bond. The other occupant of the vehicle, Rhonda Williamson, 62, was also charged and received a $5,000 bond for providing false information to law enforcement.
According to a report from the sheriff’s office, deputies received information that the driver had left the scene. Witnesses described the driver, what he was wearing, and the direction he had headed on foot.
During the process of towing the vehicle, a deputy saw Porter who again fled the scene. The deputy ran after Porter and caught him.
Bullwinkle was able to walk away from the accident, Puckett told Coastal Review. He was able to cross the dune where she found him.
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“He got himself up over the dune and was tucked back in a little swale when we got there very early Saturday morning. We walked up over the dune and looked down and saw him standing there,” she said. “I had to stop and just collect myself.”
Bullwinkle was still alive, but his injuries were significant. According to the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, he had sustained skin trauma over the right side and back; a broken right hind leg with fracture of the lower femur; left hind trauma and lateral destabilization of the hock with collateral ligament injuries, allowing the leg to bow outwards; and evidence of significant internal trauma and blood within the abdomen.
The sheriff’s office reports do not indicate how fast the vehicle was traveling at the time. Puckett points out, though, that even though a UTV is a small vehicle, the force of the impact suggests a high rate of speed.
“He hit on the one side that broke the (left) leg, and then we think the force at which he hit spun the horse around so quickly and so violently that it tore all of the ligaments and tendons on the other back leg,” she said.
Earlier in the week Bullwinkle had been recorded on video challenging another stallion, hoping to take his mares. Although unsuccessful, that behavior is an important part of wild horse behavior, and for Puckett, that makes what happened even more tragic.
“It’s devastating to see a stallion that you saw 24 hours earlier in the prime of his life, fighting, and then 24 hours later to see him standing there like that,” Puckett said.
“Even at the very end, he was still fighting,” Puckett added.
As a stallion in the prime of his life, Bullwinkle represented the future of the Corolla herd.
“Those are the genes that he would pass down,” Puckett said. “The personality traits and all of that — survival of the fittest. We didn’t just lose one horse in a tragic accident. We lost every single foal that horse would have ever started.”
The arrest serves as an important example, she noted.
“Hopefully the next person who decides to drive recklessly in the middle of the night will think about it before they do it,” Puckett said.
Puckett thanked those who helped after the accident.
“Our community rallied Friday night and Saturday,” Puckett said “I had someone help our vet get over across the water (Currituck Sound) in a boat, to avoid traffic.”
