Two horses lying bleeding on the Western Express Highway after falling off the Andheri flyover on Sunday, an injured horse taken to BSPCA Hospital later Sunday evening, and then a long trail starting from an address listed at the hospital ended at an open wasteland behind Hotel Leela Kempinski on Sahar Road, Andheri. No investigation has been initiated into the bizarre death of the horses that were being used in a Borivali-to-Bandra illegal carriage race on Sunday, Newsline found that this could be the spot where the two horses lived before their painful death.

The trail began with a lead from the BSPCA (Bombay Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) Hospital, which had an address for an injured horse brought in that evening and which died the following morning. The anonymous person who admitted the animal had listed a Marol address. However, when Newsline and a representative of the Plants and Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) trawled through Marol Naka on Tuesday, it was clear that the address was fake.

A string of enquiries finally led to Dharam Sai Nagar, Anna Wadi, a slum settlement adjoining the 20-acre plot on Sahar Road. According to residents of Anna Wadi, the dead horses were looked after by a resident and were usually rented out for weddings, races and joyrides. One of the horses that died on Sunday was buried at the site, one resident claimed.

At the spot were two other horses tied to a tree, plus five others in a makeshift stable nearby. One of the animals was a white horse painted with black stripes to resemble a zebra.

... contd.