Dave Gibbons came home to a disturbing sight at his property northwest of Bayfield on Thursday afternoon when he discovered two dead goats dumped right between his two driveways.
Gibbons said he found the two dead goats around 4 p.m. at his property in the 10600 block of County Road 502, about 5 miles west of the Forest Lakes neighborhood.
Gibbons called authorities and posted some photographs on his nextdoor.com social media page.
“I have a large property out here. They were probably 50 feet east of my second driveway right off of the county road,” he said in an interview with The Durango Herald, adding they were dumped about 10 to 15 feet from the road. “It’s kind of a blind spot where not many people can see it. I can’t see it from my house, and none of the neighbors can see it.”
La Plata County Animal Protection went out to the property Thursday night and examined the scene. The department returned to the property Friday to recover the bodies, according to animal protection director Chris Nelson.
“We’re not planning on scheduling any sort of a necropsy on the goats,” he said, adding there’s no signs of foul play that can be determined. “It looks pretty benign. … There’s no obvious signs of trauma.”
Nelson said it is believed the goats died fairly recently at another location before their bodies were dumped.
Gibbons said there’s a wide pull-off section of the road near his driveway where people sometimes drop off various items. He said every now and then, he may find a piece of furniture dumped near his property. He doesn’t mind occasionally picking up trash, but dealing with dead animals is something else.
“It’s just a shame because there are much better ways to handle a situation like that, whether they get buried some place appropriately or they’re turned in for cremation,” he said.
Looking at the corpses alongside La Plata County Animal Protection, Gibbons said there weren’t any claw or bite marks on the goats to suggest another animal such as a mountain lion killed them.
There was a small puncture mark on the abdomen of one of the goats, which Nelson said he believes could have been caused by wildlife picking at it.
Nelson said it is unknown where the goats may have originally come from because there was no brand or ear tag found on them.
Gibbons said he does not know of anyone along that stretch of County Road 502 who owns goats, but he believes whoever dumped the goats may be familiar with that area, especially the northern loop where his house sits.
mhollinshead@durangoherald.com
