My name is Mike Matson, and someone has been shooting my ostriches, one by one, on my ranch in Newberry Springs, California.

It started months ago when my ostrich Pebbles was shot and killed, leaving behind a nest of eggs she never got to hatch. This past June, my wife found two more of my ostriches shot dead with .22-caliber slugs fired straight through our fence. A third was hit too — she staggered nearly 40 feet before she collapsed and died.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department is investigating, but no one has been arrested. Out here in the Mojave Desert, that's not surprising: the Sheriff's Barstow station has only 25 deputies and supervisors covering more than 9,200 square miles. When something happens on a property like mine, help can take a long time to arrive — if it comes at all.

I've hung a banner on my fence offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. I raise these birds as pets and to sell their chicks and eggs. They are not target practice, and whoever is doing this needs to be caught before it happens again — to my animals or to someone else's.

I'm asking the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department to devote real investigative resources to these shootings and hold whoever is responsible accountable. Sign this petition to demand a real investigation into who is killing ostriches on my ranch — before another animal dies.