UPDATE:
Dog Owner Will Faces Charges
A man is being prosecuted for abandoning his dog on one of Colorado's tallest mountains.
The Clear Creek Sheriff's Office announced Friday that a criminal charge of cruelty to animals has been filed against Anthony Joseph Ortolani.
The dog was abandoned on the summit of Mount Bierstadt by her owner, who claims he was forced to leave Missy behiind because a storm was moving in and the dog couldn't walk because of blisters. Anthony Ortolani also says he had a younger hiker with him and was worried about getting down safely.
The dog was later found by other hikers. The discovery angered many hikers on an online discussion board dedicated to climbing mountains over 14,000 feet, 14ers.com, and a group mobilized to retrieve the dog. They carried her out in a backpack on Aug. 6.
About 13,500 feet above the ground, among the snow-capped peaks of Mount Bierstadt in Colorado, Scott Washburn and his wife, Amanda, found an abandoned, dying German shepherd dog.
Washburn and his wife this past Saturday, Aug. 11, were on a leisurely hike up Mount Bierstadt in Clear Creek County, a 14,000-foot peak near Denver that is categorized as a “14er” because, as Washburn said, “the peak is over 14,000 feet high and considered a Class 3, meaning it is not the most difficult – but it’s too difficult for a dog to be on it or an inexperienced person.
