This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Juab County Sheriff's deputies are investigating a string of animal poisonings around Eureka.
In the past three weeks, more than a dozen animals — including dogs, cats, chickens and pet ducks — have fallen sick, were dying or have died around the historic mining town, according to a Juab County Sheriff's Office press release.
Residents have been assuming the deaths might be the result of heavy metal poisoning; the Environmental Protection Agency tried to clean up mining contamination in Eureka from 2000 to 2009. But the sheriff's office suspects poison, said Chief Deputy Allan Taylor.
"It doesn't take very much" to kill an animal, Taylor said. Though investigators have yet to identify how the animals are being poisoned, a perpetrator often will — generally speaking — "just put [the poison] in their water and put it in their food."
The last death occurred last week. Ever since the sheriff's office posted about the poisonings on its Facebook page on Monday, the deaths have stopped, Taylor said.
"Maybe somebody who's seen our Facebook post quit," Taylor said.
Taylor added that the animals' deaths could be an accident, such as someone leaving an old container of a poisonous substance lying around that the animals have gotten into.
"It could be intentional, it could be accidental. At this point, we really don't know," he said.
The illness of one dog from poisoning was confirmed by a veterinarian.
Anyone with information about who might be responsible is asked to call the sheriff's office anonymous tip line at 435-623-1344, and choose option 4
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