Thousands sign petition after horse shot and dumped in North Yorkshire garden

Beckie Warner, 26, heard a JCB outside her Raskelf home on Wednesday night after putting her daughters to bed, then went outside and found seven-year-old thoroughbred and former racehorse Kit dying on her lawn from a gunshot to the head.

Kit - who raced under the name War Kitty and was leased by Beckie - was kept in a DIY livery owned by the nearby GG Centre.

Edward Harvey Johnson, owner of the GG Centre, said he tried to contact Ms Warner and tell her the horse would be tethered in her garden, but the horse became uneasy and kicked out at staff who tried to load the animal into a horsebox and had to be put down for the safety of his staff and the public.

The petition was started by Kathryn Montgomery-Davis, from Neston in Cheshire, just hours after Beckie's story went online, and by the weekend, the number of people who had backed it had topped 3,000.

The petition appeals directly to Prime Minister David Cameron to order financial and possible custodial penalties for the worker who killed the horse and left it in Beckie's garden.

It said: "If he gets away with this then all livery owners and horse dealers, etc, are being told that it's okay to shoot someone's horse and it is not. What next? This man is not denying the cruel crime and the police know where he is so for once, we urge you to put an end to this and make an example of this man."

Mr Johnson said he was "satisfied it was handled in the best possible way", and his staff had fulfilled their obligations for the safety and well-being of the public.

He said: "In this business you have to make these kind of decisions and they are not always pleasant or easy, but they have to be made. The buck has to stop somewhere."

*A 36-year-old man arrested in connection with the incident has been bailed to allow police to make further inquiries and a 53-year-old man, arrested at the same time, has been released without charge.