Police have closed an investigation into the deaths of 18 dogs because they say they are unable to prove the occurrence of any criminal activity.
Detective Capt. Marlin Balls said there is no evidence to support the assumption that the animals, which were from the same neighborhood, were stolen and later killed. The dogs were found dead in a canal above the Ogden foothills this summer.A medical test on one of the dogs revealed it had died of rat poisoning, said Ogden City Animal Control Officer Debra Myers. She said she remains convinced that too many dogs were disappearing from locked back yards for the deaths to be a coincidence.
Katharine Brant, director of development and publications for the Humane Society of Utah, said she was disappointed police decided to close the case but wasn't surprised.
"Unfortunately, animal issues usually are swept under the rug," she said.
The Utah Humane Society, in cooperation with the Ogden Weber Humane Society, offered a $4,000 reward for the perpetrator's arrest and conviction. The reward money now will go to other humane society programs, Brant said.
The investigation by police and animal control officers was complicated by the fact that a man who claimed ownership of the spaniel that died of rat poisoning said he was at the canal when the dog fell in and drowned.
"He insisted the dog wasn't poisoned," Myers said.
But Myers, who was present at the testing, said the dog definitely was poisoned and did not drown.