Farm dogs being taken from Utah ranches, grazing land by misguided dog-nappers
Officials with the Utah Department of Agriculture of Food said they want to spread the word to people — stop taking farm dogs off of ranches and grazing areas.
So far, in 2021, there have been 11 incidents of dogs being taken.
KSL-TV spoke to one rancher who understands it's probably people wanting to help, but at the same time, feels enough is enough.
It's still pretty quiet in Box Elder County, ... but it's not as quiet as Lane Jensen remembers ...
"It is changing," he said. "This year especially, there has been some big impacts."
It's not so much the new housing developments in the area that bother ranchers like him ...
Jensen is more concerned about people taking his dogs.
Since he's a sheep rancher, Jensen relies on dogs to help keep the flocks safe.
"We've had three incidents where we've had dogs taken from us," he said while on his ranch. "We've gotten two of them back and that was after we started micro-chipping them."
In most cases, the dog-nappers are probably people who don't understand the dogs aren't lost or abandoned.
They're actually working dogs who stay with the flocks of sheep to guard them in remote areas from predators, such as mountain lions or coyotes. ...