A Salt Lake City-based animal-rights group is offering reward money to someone who provides information that leads to the arrest of a person or people involved in the recent animal decapitations in Park City, an incentive, the group hopes, to persuade someone with knowledge to go to investigators with the information.
The Animal Advocacy Alliance of Utah said the reward money totaled $3,000 over the weekend and the dollar amount could increase through donations from members. Anne Davis, the executive director of the group, said the cases in Park City are “very disturbing” and “rather sick.”
There have been two cases in Park City since Dec. 13. There had not been previous instances, and a longtime member of the Park City Police Department cannot recall a similar episode since the mid 1980s.
“I’m baffled and I’m upset,” Davis said.
Davis holds a different theory than one offered by police investigators, saying that she suspects young people not affiliated with ritualistic groups are responsible for the killings. The police, though, have said the animal deaths could be tied to rituals. The second discovery, on Dec. 16, included a dead chicken with pieces of cloth of different colors tied to one leg. The cloth was noteworthy, the police said, in that it indicated the chicken likely did not die naturally prior to being put where it was discovered.
Davis said her research has found that people who kill animals as part of a ritual keep their practices private. They do not then put the carcasses in public places as has occurred in Park City, she said.
“Rituals aren’t done for the public to see,” she said.
The two cases have primarily involved chickens. In the first one, seven dead chickens and a dead goat were discovered just off Bonanza Drive close to the intersection with Munchkin Drive. Six of the chickens and the goat had been decapitated. In the second one, a paper bag containing three chicken carcasses, one of which was headless, was found by a Park City Public Works Department worker collecting garbage at the Park City Cemetery.
Davis said she is not aware of a similar case in Utah in the last three years.
She said there is an eight in ten chance that the animal deaths are the work of young people, saying the people responsible are likely “kids trying to seek attention.”
“It’s very troublesome that someone’s child would think this is funny,” Davis said.
The Police Department is continuing its investigation. There had not been major breaks by early in the week, though.
Anybody with information may call the Police Department at 615-5500. The department’s anonymous-tip line is 615-5847. They may also contact the Animal Advocacy Alliance of Utah. Its number is 801-583-8821.
Mary Ford, a Police Department detective who is investigating the animal deaths, said reward money “always helps” the authorities.
“This is good this group is willing to step up,” Ford said.