July 1, 2013
KOLO-8 News
RENO -- The Reno Rodeo is promising an investigation after a woman said she witnessed a horse being abused. Ellie Lopez-Bowlan, a Washoe County resident, took a very brief cell phone video, which resulted in several stills. The photos appear to show someone lifting a horse's tail while another person approaches it with a prod.
Lopez-Bowlan said she saw: "pinching, tasing on the sides of a horse that was in a stall, he couldn't move, it was a pretty tight stall."
She said she was going to a box at the Reno Rodeo Friday night expecting a good time. She said she tried to get the men to stop.
"I saw what looked like a wire, a thick wire hanger that looked coppery and they were preparing to put that in (the horse's) anus and I yelled down at them and asked them to stop, they kept pinching him, tasing him, they did not stop," Lopez-Bowlan said.
Lopez-Bowlan said a volunteer told her to sit down, and that no one can stand where she was standing.
"I heard the horse scream and buck really high," she said.
