The Hickman City Council sent a Lancaster County sheriff's deputy to inform Harley Scott, owner of the horse named Peter Rabbit, that the horse must be removed from the city by Sept. 15, the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald reported Thursday.

"We're just sticking by our ordinance," Hickman Mayor Jim Hrouda said while signing the order to remove the horse, which has lived all of its 30 years in the pasture.

Hrouda said Scott and his son Jack, who owns the pasture, were uncooperative when city officials attempted to reach a compromise with the two men.

Jack Scott, a former member of the city council, voted in favor of a livestock ban in 1986 and then requested the pasture be annexed by the city in 2006, Hrouda said.

The former official said he had assumed that the annexation of the pasture would not affect the horse and it would have a "grandfather right" to remain at its home. The family has expressed concern that the elderly horse might not survive a move.