The State - News from Oct. 16, 1988

An Arabian show stallion and an Appaloosa were found stabbed at a Huntington Beach stable where a yearlong series of attacks have left one horse dead and a dozen injured. Unlike prior assaults, this one did not occur during a full moon. The registered Appaloosa, worth around $1,000, suffered a minor stab wound in the left flank. The Arabian, a survivor of five stab wounds in a March attack, was knifed once in the neck and twice in the hip. Stable owners began camping out at the stable during full moons after the series of assaults began in October, 1987. Huntington Beach Police Lt. Ed McErlain said no substantive leads have developed and an investigator has been assigned to the case. “This is very unusual,” McErlain said, but he discounted theories linking the attacks to a cult associated with the full moon.