A rash of attacks on pets and domestic animals this year has investigators scrambling to understand what’s behind the cruelty

New reports of animal cruelty are emerging in Tooele County — adding to a list of crimes that have left 19 pets or domestic animals dead or wounded in the last seven months.

The latest incident to come to light is the killing of three horses and a cow on rancher Wes Clegg’s property west of Tooele near Sheep Lane last month. Clegg, the son of Tooele County Commissioner Bruce Clegg, found the animals shot to death on Oct. 24 with .22 and .270 caliber bullet casings littering the land they were grazing on.

The crime apparently happened on the same night one of Clegg’s hound dogs — which was chained up with other dogs on 1000 West in Tooele — was found dead with a bullet through its head.

“[The shooter] must have started at Sheep Lane, where the new [Midvalley] trail is, and just gone down the trail shooting on either side,” Clegg said. “One horse had 15 holes in it.”

Another horse was shot in the lungs. A third was found with bullet wounds to the stomach, as was the cow that was killed.

“I’ve had problems with people leaving the gates open and animals getting out and getting hit by cars, but never anything like this,” Clegg said.

The killings on Clegg’s land are the latest in a spree of animal cruelty cases popping up across Tooele County.

A week after Clegg’s animals were found shot, two pet pygmy goats were found decapitated at Northlake Elementary School in Tooele — less than half a mile from where they had been stolen from a backyard pen.

The goats were discovered by a neighbor whose fence boarders the school yard. During the night, he had heard what he thought to be children crying and went to investigate. When he drove his vehicle around to the grassy area surrounding the school, he saw three teenage boys with the goats. The man called police, but the juveniles fled before police were able to respond.

The goats’ owner, Tooele resident Dena Linnell, was out of town at the time of the slaying, but was notified by police via phone and asked to identify the child-friendly goats she and her husband had purchased for her 2-year-old son less than a year ago.

“It’s so disturbing to think that someone would do that,” Linnell said.

Animal rights activists who heard Linnell’s story have pledged $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those involved with the brutal slaying — $3,000 from the Humane Society of Utah and $2,000 from the Animal Advocacy Alliance of Utah.

“You’ve got a cluster affect that alarms us greatly,” said John Fox, chief investigator for the Humane Society of Utah, of the variety of different animal cruelty cases the county has seen in recent months. “This type of behavior is not acceptable and it’s against state law. We are hoping the money will prompt people to come forward.”

Fox believes Tooele County’s rural atmosphere is one of the things that fuels animal cruelty cases locally.

“These types of crimes could happen in any rural county,” Fox said. “ There is more availability of firearms. There is more of a utilitarian use of animals than there is in a urban area — meaning many of the animals are owned for slaughter, food or work. There are all sorts of things that go on in a rural community that you don’t see in downtown Salt Lake.”

Debra Bush, animal control supervisor for Tooele City and the director of the Tooele Animal Shelter, said any increase in animal cruelty cases can be linked to population growth. But she disagrees with the idea that these types of cases occur disproportionately more often in Tooele.

“Our city has grown,” Bush said. “When you bring in additional unsavory elements then you will see a rise in these types of cases as well.”

Tooele Animal Outreach director Marci Wicks believes the underlying cause for all animal cruelty cases stems from parenting issues, whether allowing children to watch violence on television or not being an example of how to treat a pet or other animal.

“We need to be teaching children that hurting an animal isn’t right,” Wicks said, adding that animal rights activists locally welcome help from other organizations in helping spread awareness or in catching perpetrators of animal cruelty crimes.

“When we work with other groups we are able to do a lot more,” Wicks said.

Other animal cruelty cases reported in recent months include a dog stabbing in July on Seventh Street in Tooele. A blue healer named Dog had been let out with another dog routinely — with it’s owner present — before turning in for the evening. When Dog rounded a corner out of the owner’s view, he made a yelping sound, and then ran back to his owner covered in blood. A local veterinarian described Dog’s wound as a 1/2 by 1 1/2-inch knife puncture to the chest. Police still have no leads in the case.

Back in May, the Humane Society of Utah joined up with state and local farm bureaus, the Utah Cattlemen’s Association and the Tooele County Commission in offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the shooting of nine cows and a week-old calf in Skull Valley.

Tooele County Sheriff Frank Park said the reward offered brought in a few leads, but never anything substantial enough for an arrest.

“Shooting defenseless animals is a sick crime,” said Park. “Most of these animals are not running wild. They are usually penned. Common sense dictates it as totally senseless. We would love nothing better than to put our hands on these people to bring them to justice, but the perpetrators are very difficult to find, especially for the crimes that occur in the county. Who knows where they came from. We get a lot of visitors from the Wasatch Front every weekend.”

Tooele County has also been in the spotlight recently for a growing problem of cats being dumped at the Tooele County landfill. The problem prompted Animal Advocacy Alliance of Utah and Summit County Friends of Animals to step in to help rescue the cats and put them up for adoption.

As for the death of the two pint-sized pygmy goats, Linnell hopes the ending to her story is different than past cases.

“I really hope that money is a very big incentive for someone to say something — whether a friend, a parent, or even a schoolmate who may have heard something,” Linnell said. “I’m really happy that we finally have people working to try to find these people.”

Anyone with information about the killing of the pygmy goat slaying is encouraged to call the Animal Advocacy Alliance of Utah at 801-583-8821 or the Humane Society of Utah’s cruelty investigation department at 801-261-2919 ext. 210.

Jamie Belnap: jamieb@tooeletranscript.com