PANGUITCH, Utah — A prairie dog was listed among the inmates Friday on the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office website.
“Prairie dog Owens,” whose date of birth was listed as April 3 of this year, faces a Class B Misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass, the website said. (Scroll down to see a screenshot of Owens’ booking information.)
Owens was arrested at midnight early Friday morning by officer Danny Perkins, according to GCSO’s Inmate Booking web page, which still had Owens’ booking information online as of 5 p.m. Friday. Owens’ bail amount was set at $623, the website said.
Garfield County Sheriff Danny Perkins told FOX 13 the listing was an effort to add some humor to the prairie dog invasion that Garfield County residents are facing.
Prairie dogs have been causing damage to roads and crops, Perkins said. One of them was captured in a Panguitch hardware store and taken to the Garfield County Jail, where officers kept it until U.S. Forest Service officials could relocate it. The captured rodent was nicknamed “Prairie dog Owens.”
Screenshot (click here for full size):
