(Please, only Custer County CO residents sign)

This petition is started to bring justice to two horses, Brandy (light colored horse) and Buck (bay).  Brandy and Buck's original owner states:

My mother bought 2 horses about 14 years ago....6 months old....Buck and Brandy...great horses but big pets really...never really ridden or had jobs. Last year we hired Adam Nickolaus to do several jobs and he's an "off the grid" guy.  He had many many animals and offered to take Buck and Brandy and give them "forever" homes promising to never separate them.  We warned warned him that Brandy was an alpha mare -- a little bossy -- but Adam assured my folks that was not a problem.  He had cows, pigs...other horses...it's all good.  Well, two weeks ago I drove to his house and didn't see Brandy.  Yesterday I drove there and found her leg in the field. Adam was not home but one of his kids said,"she was a bully with the food so my dad shot her."  All he had to do was make a phone call letting us know he had a problem but instead..he shot her and fed her to his dogs..21 of them...(yes..21 dogs). 

Brandy is gone, "needlessly killed," and now Buck's owners want him back. Mr. Nickolaus has refused to return the horse.  Moreover, it is reported many of his dogs suffer from lack of food and vet care and that some are injured and limping. 

Signing this petition, you ask that Buck be immediately returned to his former owners and that the Sheriff's Department investigate the neglect and abuse of Brandy and the dogs at the property of Mr. Nickolaus.  If neglect is found, the county must take action to remove the ill, neglected and injured animals from Mr. Nickolaus' care. We also ask that Mr. Nickolaus be charged with animal cruelty under state law.

This petition cites Colorado Revised Statue,

18-9-202. Cruelty to animals--neglect of animals--offenses--

(1)(a) A person commits cruelty to animals if he knowingly or with criminal negligence overdrives, overloads, overworks, tortures, torments, deprives of necessary sustenance, unnecessarily or cruelly beats, needlessly mutilates, needlessly kills, carries or confines in or upon any vehicles in a cruel or reckless manner, or otherwise mistreats or neglects any animal, or causes or procures it to be done, or, having the charge or custody of any animal, fails to provide it with proper food, drink, or protection from the weather, or abandons it.