As Tooele police investigate the decapitation slaying of two pet goats stolen from a family's yard on Halloween, animal-rights activists are raising concerns over what they say is an alarming trend in Tooele County -- vicious crimes against animals.

Police believe three teenagers trespassed in the backyard of Zack and Dena Linnell in the early hours of Oct. 31 and broke into a pen containing the family's two pygmy goats, Daisy and Duke. At around 2 a.m., a man whose home is near Tooele's North Lake Elementary School called 911 to report noise that he thought was children crying outside the school, said Tooele police Lt. Paul Wimmer.

When police arrived to investigate, they found one of the 12-inch-tall goats decapitated; the head of the other goat was hanging to its body "by a thread," Wimmer said. The man who had called police said he drove to the school, which is near the Linnells' home on Salton Street, and saw three juveniles attacking the animals.

The pets were traced to the Linnells from an identification tag found on one of the goat's collars, and authorities cleaned up the bloody scene before school opened. The incident disgusted neighbors and the Linnell family, who had to explain to their toddler that the friendly goats who had followed him around the backyard couldn't come out to play anymore.

"He runs for the backyard, baaing. The first week, he would go to the refrigerator to get out carrots to feed them," Dena Linnell said. "He didn't comprehend they were gone."

Weeks have passed, and the crime remains unsolved, but repulsion over the pets' beheading is spreading across the state. The Humane Society of Utah on Friday announced a $3,000 award for any information related to the goat killings.

The goat slayings are the latest in a series of crimes against animals in Tooele that worry animal-rights advocates. In late April, nine cows and one calf were shot to death while grazing in Skull Valley.

About a week before the goats' decapitation, a dog was reportedly shot in the head, Wimmer said. And another dog was stabbed in the chest while momentarily out of sight from its owner on a Tooele street in July.

"It seems like Tooele County is having a problem with these types of crimes," said John Paul Fox, chief investigator for the Humane Society of Utah.

"You've got a fairly rural county. You've got a lot of people driving around with pickup trucks with guns in the gun rack. There are people who have a more utilitarian view of animals than we do as pets ... and if they want to get their kicks, they'll shoot them."

Wimmer said the animal cruelty incidents are isolated and probably carried out by teens who view the killings as pranks rather than as a "sick act," he said.

"Each individual case is disturbing," said Wimmer. "But it's not anything we're thinking, 'We have a giant problem.' "

Police have no motive or suspects in the case so far. The Linnells said they can't imagine why anyone would want to harm the goats. The family gets along well with neighbors, and other homes on surrounding streets also have fenced-in backyards with horses and even llamas and ostriches.

If the goats' assailants are caught, they probably won't be prosecuted under Utah's "Henry's Law," which makes animal torture a felony in some cases. Legislators agreed to pass the animal torture bill during the last legislative session, but included a provision to make the law apply only to domestic dogs and cats. Other pets and livestock are exempt.

Dena Linnell said she doesn't want her pets' killers to be punished; rather she thinks they need counseling.

The slayings unnerved her, she said. The family's dogs now sleep inside the house, she said.

Until the Linnells receive some answers about the killings, they don't plan to replace their pet goats anytime soon, she added.

"I don't want another animal out there if I know it's not going to be safe," Linnell said.

mrogers@sltrib.com