32 Cattle Poisoned by Rat Poison Dumped in Utah Rodeo Arena Water Tank
A strange poisoning case in Utah has a combined reward of $2,000 to find out who tried to kill 32 cattle at a rodeo arena.
On June 27, rancher Michael Dow, of Tooele, Utah, discovered some of the 32 calves he had loaned to the Tooele Bit N’ Spur Riding Club arena were on their death beds.
Dow says six of the calves were in bad shape. Symptoms included tongues hanging and froth coming from the calves’ mouths, while some had a bloody discharge coming from their noses.
After a closer inspection Dow found approximately 150 pellets of rat poison in the bottom of a water tank in the pen.
“These little pellets start out as dry and then once they’ve been absorbed by the water they start to disintegrate and it goes into them the cattle and ruins their stomach,” Dow tells FOX 13 from Salt Lake City.
Tiny pellets poured into water trough for these cattle are *believed to be rat poison. Who would poison cows? Working on this story for @abc4utah at 10 tonight. pic.twitter.com/h7Ugpf4wWH — Nick McGurk (@NickMcGurkTV) June 29, 2018
Christine Jones, a volunteer with Bit N’ Spur, says it is “heartbreaking” that someone would intentionally poison cattle like this.
“I don't know if it's a vendetta against the Bit N’ Spur; I don't know if it's some silly prank that kids are playing, not realizing the severity and the fact that they're killing an innocent animal,” Jones says.
The cattle have an estimated value of $35,000 and both Dow and Bit N’ Spur are incurring additional costs to help keep the calves alive.
