This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The case against a horse trainer charged in the dehydration and deaths of nearly a dozen horses in Salt Lake County in 2014 has been dismissed by a 3rd District Court judge, based on an agreement between prosecutors and the defense.
Shamus Josef Haws, 40, of Erda, was found guilty last year by a Salt Lake County Justice Court jury of four of 11 counts of class C misdemeanor animal cruelty.
Haws, who was sentenced to 50 hours of community service and fined $1,360, appealed the case by asking for a new trial in district court.
On Monday, 3rd District Judge Elizabeth Hruby-Mills signed a stipulated motion to dismiss the case.
A motion filed by the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office, which was agreed upon by the defense, stated that since the horses were found dead in July 2014, Haws had fixed the watering problem in the pasture at a cost of several thousand dollars, and also had increased and improved the supervision over his horses.
Haws also completed 50 hours of community service and donated $10,000 to the Utah Horse Council to be used to further the welfare of horses, according to the motion.
Ten horses were found dead on July 18, 2014, in a private, fenced field near Pleasant Green Cemetery, near 3500 South and 9200 West in Magna. An 11th horse survived.
Testimony during the justice court trial indicated the animals did not have water, and necropsies performed on three of the horses by the state Veterinary Diagnostic Lab found they died from dehydration.
Prosecutors said Haws put the horses in the pasture on July 8, 2014, and checked on them only once in the next 10 days, despite temperatures reaching the 90s. The high temperature was 96 degrees on the day the horses were found.
The defense said at trial that although Haws was responsible for the horses, a contract employee for the company he runs with his father-in-law was supposed to make sure a trough in the field was always filled with water.
In addition, the defense claimed that the necropsies suggested the horses might also have died from poisoning, raising the possibility that access to water wasn't the only issue.