Franktown farmer: $1,000 reward for stolen goats

A Franktown farmer is offering a $1,000 reward after two baby goats were stolen over the weekend.  He is worried they won't survive.

"Got my first goats about three years ago," said Doug Casto, a Douglas County retiree, whose favorite part of goat farming is the new kids. "When you get the little ones, they're just such cute little guys."

Four times a day, he bottle feeds two of the newest babies because their mothers rejected them.

"They're like infants. They need to be fed every few hours," said Casto. "This is powdered milk, formulated for livestock."

But Sunday, one mother goat would not stop bleating, he said.

"What put me onto this was that one of them was calling frantically for her baby, couldn't find it," said Casto. "I did a head count, and two were missing."

There was no sign a coyote had dug under the fence, but he noticed the gate had been left in a different position than he left it.

He also remembered a red pickup that had pulled into his driveway Friday afternoon near the goats.

"I thought it was just a sightseer, but now I wish I had gotten the license plate number," he said.

The two stolen kids were only three or four days old and need to be fed several times a day if they are away from their mothers.

"It makes you mad as hell first of all. And you feel kind of sad that the goats are probably going to die," said Casto. "I would dearly love to have somebody watch your news report, say 'Ah ha! I know who did that.'"

Casto said all the kids are similar in coloring: brown and white with some black.

If you have any information about the stolen goats, contact the Douglas County Sheriff's Office.