Investigators seek information about cattle mutilation in Carbon County

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CARBON COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) — Livestock investigators are seeking information after a livestock owner found a bull dead and its reproductive organs mutilated.

According to Director of Animal Industry at Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) Leann Hunting, on or around July 3, a livestock owner found a dead bull in a field. It was on Bureau of Land Management land within his allotment, and he thought something was off about the incident, so he contacted East Carbon Law Enforcement.

East Carbon Law Enforcement contacted the Carbon County Sheriff’s Department, who has been conducting the investigation. Hunting said that any livestock crimes are investigated by law enforcement agencies, and the UDAF’s Livestock Division is available to assist in those cases.

Investigators found “very suspicious circumstances” surrounding the death of the bull, with signs of mutilation in the form of its reproductive organs being removed.

“One piece of the reproductive organ has not been recovered. Another piece was found just a ways away from the animal, but there were no tracks around the animal, or tracks leading up to the animal,” Hunting described.

The Livestock Brand Inspection Division of the UDAF and Carbon County Sheriff’s Department are asking anyone with information about this case or any other livestock criminal cases to contact them with that information. They are offering a reward for any information that leads to a conviction or arrest.

Livestock crime takes place statewide, not just in rural areas, and the UDAF works on those cases fairly regularly, Hunting said.

“Whether livestock has been stolen, we had some incidents where livestock had been shot a few years back, particularly when cattle prices are high, we see more cases related to theft, but as far as mutilation is concerned, very rarely do we have a case that we can rule out other factors and say that it was mutilation,” Hunting explained.

Those other factors are other animals feeding on a carcass, where they will usually eat the softest tissue first, which can be the reproductive organs. Hunting said that investigators also determine whether the animal died of natural causes or was intentionally killed before other animals fed on the carcass.

In this case, those other factors are not present, and so it is a mutilation case, which Hunting said is extremely rare.