It’s been more than two years since charges were dropped against Brandon Fulton, previously accused of animal cruelty. But the seven horses taken from him still haven’t been returned, including one worth at least $35,000.
The so-called “Urban Cowboy” has now filed a federal lawsuit against Fulton County commissioners, District Attorney Paul Howard and the CEO of the animal group that was ordered to take the horses after Fulton’s 2016 arrest. He wants either his horses back or the money they were worth, the lawsuit states.
“His constitutional rights were trampled on by Fulton County because they felt like they could,” attorney John Edwards told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “They need to compensate him for his loss in some fashion.”
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The defendants named in the lawsuit declined to comment on the case.
Brandon Fulton is a former DJ who stepped away from music to focus on animals, he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a 2012 interview.
“It was cool for a minute, but I felt like I was supposed to be fulfilled, and I wasn’t,” Fulton said of his music career. “I didn’t know what it was at the time. Now I know what it was — it was the animals.”
Fulton later bought 30 acres, plenty of room for his horses, off Butner Road in south Fulton County.
But on July 20, 2016, he was arrested and charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, jail records show. Investigators found several dead horses on the property, police said after Fulton’s arrest. In a later interview with Channel 2 Action News, Butner said he’d only owned the property three months and suspected the dead horses had been there before he purchased it.
Fulton was granted a $75,000 bond. One of his bond conditions was that his horses would be surrendered, the lawsuit states. In early 2017, additional animal cruelty charges were filed against Fulton.
In April 2018, the DA’s office dropped the charges against Fulton. In a statement to Channel 2, Howard noted there was not enough evidence to move forward with the case.
“Biological samples were removed from the four dead horses for lab examination to determine the manner and cause of death of each horse,” a portion of Howard’s statement read. “The testing failed to reveal this information, forcing the District Attorney to not seek charges against Mr. Fulton or any other parties.”
But Fulton still doesn’t have his horses back.
“At that point in time, the horses should’ve been returned,” Edwards said.
Fulton isn’t even sure where his horses are now. He and his attorney suspect they were adopted to groups around the country or sold.
“The problem is this: When you seize horses as evidence in a criminal case, you’re supposed to keep the evidence,” Edwards said.
The exact value of all the horses isn’t known, the attorney said. But Spinderella, a mare tobiano, is worth between $35,000 to $60,000, Edwards said.
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