Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
DRAPER — Wildlife officials were trying to solve the mystery Wednesday of at least nine dead and gutted geese found on a road.
"A lot of things about it just don't make sense," said Utah Division of Wildlife conservation officer Ray Loken.
About 2:30 a.m., a Draper police officer spotted the dead geese along 700 West between 11400 South and 12000 South.
"They were in fairly advanced states of decomposition," said Loken, who was called to take over the investigation.
The internal organs were missing, but Loken said he couldn't determine yet whether that happened before or after the geese died or if that was caused by humans or animals. He said it appeared that a couple of the geese had been run over by other vehicles before they were discovered.
He did not believe the geese were killed in the location where they were found. Their necks were broken. Loken said after a preliminary examination of one bird, he spotted what may have been pellet holes, but said he wouldn't know for sure until the birds were given a closer examination.
What was odd, he said, was that the geese appeared to have been soaked in water before ending up on the road. He wasn't sure Wednesday if it was the result of poachers or not, and whether they were dumped or if they fell from the back of someone's truck.
Goose hunting season doesn't start until October.
Contributing: Shara Park
---
