Eight horses — including one just a week old and another on the verge of giving birth — died in an Ohio barn fire that authorities may investigate as a hate crime, according to a local newspaper. Ohio resident Brent Whitehouse awoke just before midnight on Easter Sunday to check on Love, his pregnant quaterhorse, only to find a harrowing scene: his barn — which housed seven adult horses and one foal — was glowing orange, the Zanesville Times Recorder reported. Recognizing the peril of his horses, Whitehouse told WHIZ News he ran to the barn and desperately tried to open the doors and free his animals.

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