It happened Friday, according to the Corolla Wild Horse Fund (CWHF).
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The nonprofit said it received a call from a Dominion Power worker who found 10-year-old Hurricane on the ground, tangled in wire.
According to the fund, the wire was not a power line, but wire that had been put up for fencing.
Hurricane was freed by CWHF staff and walked off to the beach, but he went down right on the foreshore in distress. A rescue team got Hurricane and a vet arrived to the farm.
The horse could not stand and was showing neurological symptoms. He was administered IV fluids, steroids and an anti-inflammatory.
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Hurricane later went into organ failure and the call was made to humanely euthanize him to end his suffering. The vet determined the horse had gone into heat stroke from struggling in the wires for several hours.
"Our heartfelt thanks goes out to everyone who helped get Hurricane off the beach yesterday. It was not an easy task, physically or emotionally," said the Corolla Wild Horse Fund in a Facebook post.
The nonprofit said horses already face so many natural challenges to their survival and urged locals to clean up potential hazards.
"Property owners, please take this preventable death as an opportunity to look around your yard and clean up anything that could be a danger for the horses. Any kind of wire is an extreme danger to the horses, and not suitable fencing material. Pallets, sand fencing that's falling down, loose ropes, barriers and gates that are in poor repair, rusted and broken car and boat parts, etc, etc. are all hazardous to the horses' safety," the fund said. "This is not the first time we've had a horse tangled in wire or other material, but with your help hopefully it can be the last."
The featured video from this story is from a previous story about an OBX wild horse who died after choking on an apple.