They always say that most serial killers start with cruelty to animals...

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Thrill killing is suspected in the slaughter of five deer in Waupaca County, with snowmobilers believed to have chased the animals down in a field and run them over, authorities said Monday.

By Monday afternoon, a reward fund for information leading to the killers had climbed to $9,000, fueled by local snowmobile clubs and residents outraged by the crime.

"Apparently some people using snowmobiles as a weapon ran down, dragged and did unspeakable acts of cruelty" to the deer, said state Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman Laurel Steffes.

"The overwhelming majority of snowmobilers find this act despicable," Steffes said. "Everybody is pretty shocked."

The discovery was made about 9 a.m. Saturday by a farmer who rents the land near Denmark and Holiday roads in the Town of Lind, said Detective Sgt. John Mocadlo of the Waupaca County Sheriff's Department.

The field is along a snowmobile trail on private land, and investigators think three or four snowmobiles were involved in the attack, sometime between 1:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. Saturday.

Four deer were found dead at the scene and a fifth had to be euthanized, said Carl Mesman, a conservation warden supervisor with the DNR.

One deer was apparently dragged and strapped by the neck to a tree, where it was run over and apparently died trying to free itself.

Investigators think one deer was placed under a snowmobile and eviscerated by the machine's track, Mesman said.

"This is not something I've personally ever seen before, especially what appears to be the joy that (the killers) took," said Mesman, who noted an increase in the number of incidents in which people have used motor vehicles to intentionally run over animals.