The SPCA is describing a brutal attack on a miniature horse as vicious and horrendous.
The man behind the shocking assault, Reginald Ozanne, has been sentenced to two-and-a-half-years in prison for fatally stabbing Star in Waitati, north of Dunedin, last year.
Inspectorate general manager Tracy Phillips says she doesn't know what would motivate someone to do such a thing.
"I can't imagine what was going through someone's mind, behaving in a way like that. I can't imagine the stress and pain for that poor little horse."
Star was stabbed 41 times, and spent five hours in surgery before dying.
Ozanne reportedly visited the horse's owner after the attack to deny responsibility. He later told media he was being singled out as the "newest person in town", calling whoever carried out the heinous crime "insane".
He claimed the night of the crime he'd finished off a bottle of whisky, watched a movie and gone to bed.
"I would have been lucky to walk to the mailbox let alone anywhere else," he told NZME.
Phillips said the two-and-a-half-year sentence for wilful ill-treatment of an animal was a good outcome.
"We don't normally comment on sentences because that's for the judges to do, but it does really draw attention to what can only be described as a vicious attack."
Star's owner Mandy Mayhem-Bullock told the court it was a "crazy, evil act". Police called Ozanne's actions "deplorable".
