MAGNA — Salt Lake County Animal Services officers, who have worked with a Magna family for six years to correct multiple problems, seized 78 animals from the home here. Officials said they acted because they had been unable to reach workable agreements with the animals' owners.
Most of the animals were farm animals and were being kept outside, but seven of them were cats that had urinated in the house, officials said. Eight cats remain. The seven cats were taken because they were unhealthy.
Mary Lee Sutton owns the property near 2800 South and 8000 West. The area is not well-developed, and the Suttons have no immediate neighbors. Officials said there were a number of problems related to the family's numerous animals, but conditions weren't serious enough for Sutton and her 93-year-old mother, Bertha, to be forced out of the home, they said.
Diane Keay, an environmental area supervisor with the Salt Lake Valley Health Department, said she expects to send a letter to the Suttons that will detail what kind of cleaning they need to do inside the home. Although an occasional urine smell reaches the street when the wind picks up, the home is not considered a public health risk, Keay said.
She said there was visible animal waste inside the home, and animal services officers confirmed that statement.
But Keay didn't want to force the Suttons out of their home. "They can make some choices on their own," she said. "They're adults."
When animal control officers showed up Friday at noon, Mary Lee Sutton was surprised and angry. She said the removal of the animals was destroying her livelihood.
Taylor Christensen, who lives across the street from the Suttons, said he has never noticed a bad smell coming from the home or anything amiss there.
"I think they should just leave her alone," he said.
Only occasionally have some of the animals gotten outside of fences, Christensen said, and he has helped corral them in the past.
"She takes good care of them," he said.
Later, Sutton was more calm.
"It's a lot of animals to take care of," she said, calling it a relief that animal services had stepped in to help some of her animals find good homes.
The 58 goats taken from the yard are being held at the Herriman fairgrounds, said animal services spokeswoman Temma Martin. One sheep and one of two seized horses will be put down for health reasons, Martin said. Seven dogs and seven puppies will probably be put up for adoption. The cats may not be adoptable, Martin said. A neighbor is taking care of some cows.
Once the Suttons fix a fence, the goats can go back home, Martin said.
"It's not like we decided yesterday to come and take their animals," she said.
Over the past six years, the family and animal control officials have not agreed on how to care for the animals.
The years of talks and court hearings between the two parties ended this week when animal services obtained a search warrant Wednesday.
"We're now reacting to what we've been trying to resolve," Martin said.
Officers brought cats, goats, dogs, horses and the sheep out of the house, nearby fields and barns and placed them in trailers for transport.
Mary Lee Sutton helped them corral dogs and goats while geese and sheep on the property minded their own business.
Some concern was raised about Bertha Sutton, who spent most of the late morning and early afternoon in a chair cradling two small dogs.
From time to time, she was seen crying over the animals. Mary Lee Sutton said the day was stressful for her mother.
The farmland where the Suttons' home sits has been in the family for four generations, Mary Lee Sutton said. She takes care of it under the banner of the Mary Lee Sutton Cattle Co.
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