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SALINA, Sevier County — The deaths of two dogs in two southern Utah counties have sparked a pair of unrelated animal cruelty investigations.
In Salina, a man who left his Australian shepherd-kelpie mix tied up in his backyard when he went to work, came home to discover the dog was badly injured.
"He went out and the dog couldn't walk," Salina police officer Greg Harwood said. "So he took the dog to the vet and he X-rayed it, because they couldn't see anything just on the surface."
The dog had a broken shoulder, Harwood said.
"So it looks like someone had to have whacked that dog hard with something pretty solid," he said.
The dog could no longer walk and had to be euthanized, Harwood said.
The dog's owner had last seen the dog about 11 p.m. on Aug. 4 when he went outside to feed him, Harwood said. By 4 p.m. the next day, he was injured.
As of Tuesday, police had no leads on possible suspects, or even a motive.
"Who knows? There are so many possibilities," Harwood said. "Was someone sneaking through? Was someone mad at the dog? Was someone mad at the owner? Was somebody where they shouldn't be and got surprised?"
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Salina Police Department at 435-896-6471.
In neighboring Wayne County, authorities were also investigating a death of a dog that initially appeared to be another case of animal abuse.
On Aug. 13, investigators from the Bureau of Land Management called the Wayne County Sheriff's Office to report that a dog had been discovered chained to a tree near Big Rocks and left with no food or water. It was believed the dog had been there for at least a week.
Pictures of the dog, who appeared to be 1 year old or younger, posted on the sheriff's office Facebook page received widespread attention as investigators tried to find the dog's owner.
Since the original post, Sheriff Kurt Taylor said Tuesday that deputies had tracked down the owner. While deputies still needed to verify the owner's written statement, they were now looking at the possibility that the dog was not abandoned and left to starve to death, Taylor said.
"I think there's going to be more to the story that's going to answer a lot of questions. If it's leading the way I think it is, I don't think there was so much of an intent to leave the dog there to die. In fact, there is a high probability it was already dead when the subject left where the dog was," he said.
Thomas declined to go into detail about the owner's explanation of what happened due to the ongoing investigation and pending charges. The main issue will be how the dog died, Taylor said. And while "foolish thinking" may have been involved, what investigators need to determine is whether it was criminal.
"There's just more to the story … that may not justify the ends or the means, but it may make a difference whether there are criminal charges pressed," he said.
