{"id":203616,"date":"2026-03-13T21:38:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T21:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/203616\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T21:38:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T21:38:19","slug":"lubbock-county-sheriff-seeks-owner-of-injured-horse-before-march-29-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/203616\/","title":{"rendered":"Lubbock County sheriff seeks owner of injured horse before March 29 deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) &#8211; A social media post from the Lubbock County Sheriff\u2019s Office about an impounded horse drew significant online attention this week, and deputies are hoping that engagement helps them find the animal\u2019s owner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The roughly 800-pound sorrel horse was discovered March 10 near North FM 1729 and East County Road 6500 with visible sores, cuts and fly bites. Staff Sergeant Abel Betancourt says the animal\u2019s condition stood out.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Lubbock County sheriff seeks owner of injured horse before March 29 deadline\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OHAT5HFDGRGJTNFUUQ2SLLP5WY.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"980\" \/>Lubbock County sheriff seeks owner of injured horse before March 29 deadline(Lubbock County Sheriff&#8217;s Office)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cNormally for older horses, we see worse, just because the older they get they become thinner, they don\u2019t eat as much. This one [has] particular issues. I haven\u2019t seen one this bad in a while,\u201d Betancourt said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">With no livestock holding facility available, the horse is currently receiving care at a veterinary clinic while the search for its owner continues. Deputies have posted notice on social media and at the courthouse, as required by Texas law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">If no owner is identified by March 29, the animal will be auctioned, a single-item sale scheduled for March 31 at the county detention center.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cBy law we have to do our posting and list it as it\u2019s going to be auctioned. There\u2019s different instances where our hands are tied and this one of them, it\u2019s the process we have to go through,\u201d Betancourt said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Given the horse\u2019s condition, deputies say animal cruelty charges could be filed once an owner is identified. Betancourt says locating that person is a priority for more than one reason.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe hope we do because obviously want to get an animal back to their owner, but in this case, we want to get to the owner for a lot of different reasons,\u201d Betancourt said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The sheriff\u2019s office is encouraging residents to continue sharing and engaging with the Facebook post to help spread the word across Lubbock County.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe best way is doing what we did. Sharing it, liking it, commenting, \u2018Hey I\u2019ve seen this horse, too. It belongs over here &#8211; just little things that helps us. If you think about how large Lubbock County is, a horse can get out and it can travel 10, 20, 30, 40 miles,\u201d Betancourt said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) &#8211; A social media post from the Lubbock County Sheriff\u2019s Office about an impounded horse&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,170,169],"class_list":["post-203616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}