11 News is getting answers from investigators in a disturbing case. We've learned that three animals were shot.

The El Paso County Sherriff's Office said right now they working to find out if the shootings are connected. Two of the animals shot to death were horses.

"Of all the things to shoot, a horse? A horse doesn't do anything," owner Matt Hall said.

Hall is devastated. His horse, Dixie, was shot in the chest and died in Calhan while they were out of town last week.

"It's never the same, (Dixie was) a good horse, one of those once in a life time horses," Hall told us.

Around the same time, and less than a half mile away, El Paso County Investigators told us, a lion named Zazu was shot in the shoulder. That lion stays at the Serenity Springs Wildlife Center.

"To pick on a defenseless animal that's sitting in a cage, that's not a hunter. That (person) shouldn't even have a gun,” Wildlife Center Executive Director Nick Sculac said.

That injury was just reported to the Sheriff's Office Sunday because they were waiting on a veterinarian to confirm that it was in fact a gunshot wound.

The investigation started 11 miles away in Calhan where another horse was shot and killed two weeks earlier. The Sheriff's Office said that in all of these cases, the animals were shot just once.

Hall, the horse owner told us that they have set up their own reward fund. They're offering $2000 for the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for killing their horse Dixie.

If you have any information about any of these crimes, call the El Paso County Sheriff's Office (719) 390-5555 or Crimestoppers (719) 634-STOP.