Two breeding bulls in Utah's Uintah Basin are alive after someone apparently went out of their way to shoot them in the testicles, leaving authorities scratching their heads over who would commit such a cruel act.
The bulls, owned by Duchesne County rancher Treven Jensen, were discovered injured after Jensen returned from a hunting trip Friday. At first, he thought dogs had gotten into his cattle, his neighbor and county brand inspector Jay Burton told Cowboy State Daily.
It wasn't until a veterinarian examined the animals that Jensen learned they had been shot.
Now, authorities are investigating the shootings as crimes. There are no suspects, no recovered bullets and no clear motive.
"We just don't have any leads," Duchesne County Sheriff's Capt. John Crowley told Cowboy State Daily.
The incidents were reported Nov. 6, but the shootings might have happened days earlier.
For Wyoming ranchers, the injuries are particularly disturbing because a breeding bull represents one of the most valuable investments a cattle producer can make.
Shooting a bull in the testicles doesn't just injure the animal. It can destroy its ability to reproduce and, with it, much of its economic value.
"It's probably as bad a form of animal cruelty as you can get," said Wyoming state Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, a longtime cattle rancher.
Bullet Holes, Not Dog Bites
Burton shares a fence with Jensen and said the rancher initially had no reason to suspect someone had shot his cattle.
The two men even discussed whose dogs might have gotten into Jensen's pasture.
"He said the bulls were really ripped up," Burton recalled.
Jensen took the bulls to a local veterinarian, who determined that the injuries weren't from dogs at all. Both bulls had been shot through their reproductive organs.
"He didn't even expect 'shot'. His mind didn't even go there," Burton said.
The discovery was especially unsettling because the bulls were well inside private property, nowhere near a public road.
"It's not the kind of thing you would suspect, especially where he lives," Burton said.
Some commenters on social media questioned whether the bulls might have been suffering from pigeon fever, a bacterial infection that can cause abscesses and swelling in horses and cattle. The disease is prominent in eastern Utah.
But Burton and Crowley said the injuries were unmistakably gunshot wounds.
"There are through-and-through holes," Burton said.
Based on the size of the wounds, Burton said he believes the shooter used a small-caliber firearm at relatively close range. He said whoever fired the shots would have had to venture well onto Jensen's property.
"The bulls were not next to a road at all," he said.
That raises another troubling question: Was someone specifically targeting Jensen's bulls?
"I kind of wonder if it wasn't personal just because of the effort they went to to get to these particular bulls," Burton said.
He also said modern night-vision equipment could have allowed someone to approach and shoot the animals after dark, although investigators have not established when the shootings occurred.
The bulls have been treated with antibiotics and steroid injections, Crowley said. Both survived, but the extent of their long-term injuries and whether they will ever breed again remains unclear.
Burton said what bothers him most is the suffering inflicted on the animals.
"It's extremely sad," he said.
Not The First Shooting
As strange as the shootings may seem, Burton said they are not the first incidents of cattle being shot in the region.
"We've had a rash of this in our area," he said.
In October, another bull was shot on a property about 20 miles east of Jensen's ranch.
Wade Heaton, who owns a tire store in nearby Vernal, said that bull belongs to his father-in-law.
The bullet passed completely through the animal, leaving wounds that initially made its survival seem unlikely.
"It looks like the perfect kill shot for any animal you wanted to kill," Heaton told Cowboy State Daily.
The bull was examined by a veterinarian who initially doubted it would survive. But the bullet somehow missed the animal's vital organs.
"The vet said you probably couldn't make that shot twice if you tried," Heaton said.
Crowley said investigators have considered whether a hunter might have been responsible because the animal was near a national forest boundary.
While Heaton was distressed over his father-in-law’s bull, he said the injuries to Jensen's bulls are entirely different.
"Shooting in the testicles is a totally different game. It ruined them," he said.
Heaton said he feels terrible for Jensen, knowing the financial investment a rancher makes in breeding bulls.
And the October shooting wasn't the first.
Burton said five calves were shot and killed about a year ago, roughly five miles from where Jensen's bulls were injured.
Wildlife officials helped recover bullets from those animals, he said, preserving evidence that could be used to connect the shootings if additional incidents occurred.
Burton said he also has investigated instances within the past year involving cattle slaughtered on national forest land in Duchesne County.
There is no evidence publicly linking those incidents to the shootings of Jensen's bulls, but Burton said the frequency is concerning.
"There's been enough of it," he said. "If there's more than one, it's an ongoing problem. There have been a lot more than one."
Heaton agrees.
"It definitely seems to be a problem in the area," he said.
Who Would Do This?
That's the question investigators and ranchers throughout the region are asking.
Crowley said the unusual nature of the injuries raises the possibility that the shootings were the work of young people behaving recklessly.
"It almost sounds like kids screwing around," he said.
But investigators have not identified any suspects, and there's no evidence establishing whether the shootings were random or targeted.
Jim Magagna, a longtime Wyoming rancher and cattle industry advocate, said he has never encountered a case quite like this.
He has heard of disputes between neighboring ranchers escalating to the point where one person shoots another's livestock, but deliberately shooting breeding bulls in the testicles is something else entirely.
"My first thought is it's some animal-rights group or an anti-red meat organization," Magagna said.
He acknowledged, however, that teenagers challenging one another to do something destructive could also be responsible.
Neither theory is supported by evidence in the Duchesne County investigation.
Magagna said disputes involving bulls aren't unheard of in ranch country. Sometimes a bull gets through a fence and into a neighbor's pasture, where it breeds cows it doesn't belong with.
Such situations can generate considerable anger between neighbors.
But shooting the offending animal is hardly an acceptable solution, he said.
Wyoming has seen its share of bizarre cattle-related disputes.
In 2023, a feud between neighboring ranchers in Crook County resulted in allegations that one ranching family had bleached penis-shaped markings onto another family's cattle.
But deliberately shooting bulls in their reproductive organs takes livestock disputes to an entirely different level.
Burton said he finds the idea of someone deliberately making an animal suffer and then walking away particularly disturbing.
A Rancher's Worst Nightmare
For Driskill, the shootings represent more than cruelty toward animals. They're an attack on a rancher's livelihood.
Bulls are traditionally worth considerably more than cows because of their ability to breed and produce future generations of cattle.
A quality breeding bull can represent years of genetic selection and a substantial financial investment.
"When you shoot them in the testicles, you've just destroyed their value," Driskill said. "They're worth the same as hamburger."
He called the shootings an act of "pure malice," inflicting economic and emotional harm on the rancher as well as physical suffering on the animals.
Driskill compared the deliberate nature of the attacks to attempted murder, saying the apparent intent to cause suffering makes the crimes particularly reprehensible.
A rancher can spend years building a herd, selecting breeding stock and working to improve the quality of the cattle. One person with a gun can undo much of that work in seconds.
"These aren't just financial investments. They're living animals, and someone's livelihood," Burton said in a statement shared on social media.
$20,000 Reward
Utah law makes the intentional, unauthorized injury or killing of livestock a criminal offense.
According to Crowley, the offense can be a third-degree felony if the combined value of the livestock is more than $750 but no more than $5,000. If the value exceeds $5,000, it is a second-degree felony. A third-degree felony is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000; a second-degree felony carries a possible prison sentence of one to 15 years and a fine of up to $10,000.
Restitution may also be ordered.
A reward of up to $20,000 has been offered in connection with livestock shootings in Duchesne County for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
Crowley said the sheriff's office has followed up with Jensen and the veterinarian who treated his bulls, but investigators have little physical evidence to work with.
No projectile was recovered from either animal.
He encouraged ranchers to consider installing surveillance cameras and to report suspicious activity.
But covering every ranch and pasture in a county as large and rural as Duchesne is impossible, he said.
Burton said he believes the shootings are forcing ranchers to reconsider a longstanding tradition of trusting the people who pass through their properties.
"I hate for people to have to be this way, but I'm afraid it's a see-something, say-something type of thing," he said.
Growing up in ranch country, Burton said, it was common to encounter someone on another person's property and simply assume that person had a legitimate reason to be there.
He fears those days may be changing.
"We're going to have to be more diligent if people are going to be this way," he said.
"If we're going to start having cattle shot and property destroyed, we're going to have to start knowing who's there and who's not."
Kate Meadows can be reached at kate@cowboystatedaily.com.
