Some starved. Some were injured. None received veterinary attention.
When Tuft complained to Bluffdale officials, they told her they could do little about the abuse. The suburb's 1979 ordinance lacks the teeth to go after those who neglect, abandon or beat animals.
The owner of the mistreated horses eventually moved and was prosecuted in Riverton, which has tougher rules.
Riverton animal-control officer Wendy Reed credited Tuft with helping her win convictions against the horse owner in an abuse case Reed labels "as bad as it gets."
One horse was so weak it could not lift its feet, and a colt developed deformed feet and legs from malnourishment.
During the past year, both horses have recovered. But Tuft remains on a mission to protect other Bluffdale animals.
She has been laboring to overhaul the semi-rural city's animal-cruelty code and safeguard Bluffdale's large animals in the same way Utah's new "Henry's Law" shields dogs and cats.
"I don't want a law named after me," Tuft says. "I just want to make sure this is addressed."
Some in Bluffdale are not so eager for change.
City Attorney Stephen Homer says he is writing amendments to the code, but that he is not convinced the statute needs an overhaul.
In a letter to Tuft, Homer compared the resident's lengthy proposals to developing a "space shuttle" for transportation when Bluffdale might need only a "bicycle or even a Chevrolet."
But there are concerns elsewhere in the city that Homer's version would not let Bluffdale's animal control do its job efficiently.
"This appears to be a case where the drafter and the enforcer appear to disagree on what is necessary in the ordinance," says City Councilman Bill Maxwell, adding that the council hopes to consider a pair of drafts at a meeting on Tuesday.
Tuft is tired of waiting. She says officials have been too caught up in lawsuits and infighting to address real issues.
"They say they want a rural community, that they want to protect the country lifestyle," she says. "Yet they won't do anything to protect what makes it rural."
Bluffdale Planning Commissioner MJ Jackson sides with Tuft.
"There are many animals out there being abused, but [state law] doesn't cover anything past cats and dogs. It misses chickens, goats, pigs, llamas, horses - all the big ones," Jackson says. "It's not that we don't want farmers to slaughter their cows; we just don't want them abused. But nothing can happen until Bluffdale has an ordinance."
sgehrke@sltrib.com
Bluffdale's City Council may consider revising its animal-control ordinance at its Tuesday meeting, which will be at 7 p.m. in the city fire station, 14350 S. 2200 West.
