Camp officials, farriers express shock, surprise at news
By Nina Mehlhaf, KTVZ.COM
The story continued to unfold Thursday of how an arrest was made in the case of a wounded and starving horse found two weeks ago outside of Sisters.
A Banks, Ore., man was arrested Wednesday for shooting the horse twice and it turns out, he worked seasonally at a children's summer camp.
"From our understanding, Nikko had been found a home, an adoptive home," Laura Felder said Thursday. She and her boss, Kyle Deaver, are the farriers who recognized their own horseshoe work on Nikko, or "Trooper" as he was renamed by rescuers.
He had been found by hunters nearly two weeks ago, shot in the head, 150 pounds underweight and wandering around the Sisters Ranger District with his halter and lead line still attached.
"We were shocked," Felder said. "We had no idea that it would be the same horse, and we had a photo on our records of him, just to double-check."
Nikko was one of 35 horses at Camp Tamarack, a children's summer camp off Highway 20W near Suttle Lake. Giving rides to kids, directors say he was gentle and sweet, but a leg injury from his previous owner kept vets caring for him regularly.
It was when the camp's lead horse wrangler, Daniel Willeford, tried to find Nikko a new adoptive home at the end of the summer that things went wrong.
"They (the camp) said if they found another home for it fine, but if not, they planned on keeping it and taking care of it until the wound healed, because it was just a good kids' horse," said farrier Kyle Deaver.
When craigslist ads didn't produce an adoptive home and months went by, detectives say Willeford made the secret and unauthorized decision to kill Nikko, and farriers say he left Camp Tamarack to believe he had been adopted.
Nobody knows why Willeford felt he desperately needed to get rid of the horse or find it a home, nor was NewsChannel 21 able to confirm or deny with detectives that Willeford was promised money for each horse he successfully adopted out.
Regardless, Nikko was shot first in the eye with a 9-mm gun, then again in the temple and left to die.
"When we first saw the horse, it was just sickening seeing him like that," Deaver said. "And to know Dan (allegedly) did it seems pretty crazy, because he didn't seem like that type of person."
Camp Tamarack's executive director echoed those feelings.
"We were completely shocked and had no idea that this had happened and that it was our horse," said Marc Prigohzy. "It's not something we have ever encountered or thought would happen to one of our horses."
Daniel Willeford is in the Deschutes County Jail and faces six charges, including animal abuse, animal abandonment and theft.
Nikko, named Trooper by his rescuers, is gaining weight and getting healthy and has been adopted by Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch outside of Tumalo.
