People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is asking San Juan County Attorney Mitchell Maughan to add animal cruelty counts against the man charged in connection with the Deer Creek Fire.
The July wildfire burned nearly 18,000 acres of public and private land in the La Sal Mountains, southeast of Moab, destroying 13 structures and causing more than $24 million in damage.
In a letter sent Wednesday, Oct. 15 to Maughan, PETA urged his office to pursue additional charges against Scott Carrier, who faces four misdemeanor counts related to the blaze: reckless burning, abandoned fire, causing catastrophe and violating stage one fire restrictions. The group said catastrophic fires like Deer Creek’s not only destroy homes and landscapes but also “terrorize, injure, kill, and displace countless wild and domestic animals.”
The San Juan County Attorney’s Office was not immediately available Wednesday to respond to a request for comment.
The Deer Creek Fire is alleged to have begun July 10 on Carrier’s property near Old La Sal, according to court documents.
It was fully contained Aug. 11 after burning 17,724 acres in Utah and Colorado, destroying or damaging homes, cabins, a U.S. Forest Service guard station and a communications site, and producing a rare EF-2 “firenado” with winds stronger than 110 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
PETA’s letter cited one example of a cat rescued by Moab Valley firefighters that required emergency veterinary treatment for burns to its abdomen, face, legs and paws. The organization said many other domestic and wild animals were likely killed or displaced.
“As the Deer Creek fire ravaged San Juan County, an untold number of terrified animals saw their world disappear, at least one cat sustained agonizing burns, and many other animals were surely killed,” said PETA Vice President Daniel Paden. “PETA is asking County Attorney Maughan to hold the perpetrator accountable for causing so much suffering.”
PETA’s letter referenced Utah’s animal-cruelty law, which makes it a crime to recklessly or negligently injure an animal. The organization said prosecutors in California and Oregon have filed and won similar cases after PETA requested cruelty-to-animals charges in wildfire prosecutions.
Colin Henstock, associate director of project strategy in PETA’s cruelty investigations department, said the group learned of the injured cat through news reports but believes many other animals also suffered.
“Causing a fire that burned nearly 18,000 acres, there definitely were other animals who were killed in this,” Henstock said.
He said PETA has not yet received a response from the San Juan County Attorney’s Office but hopes prosecutors will take the request seriously.
“We hope they do seek some small measure of justice for this cat who was injured in the fire and for any other animals,” Henstock said.
He added that the group wants the case to highlight the suffering animals endure in wildfires.
“We would just encourage everyone to imagine the pain and the terror that animals experienced as their homes and their habitats burned around them in the fire that was allegedly started by Scott Carrier,” he said. “They experienced the same agony that you or I would.”