Rio Rancho neighbors have questions after dead bull found in mesa

RIO RANCHO, N.M. (KRQE) – Saturday morning, Tom Camacho was out walking his dog in the mesa near Rainbow and Southern when he encountered something grisly. He said it was a dead bull that was seemingly dumped in the middle of the mesa.

Camacho said the bull wasn’t a stranger to him, and in fact, it belonged to his neighbors.

Just a quarter mile from their homes, Camacho and another neighbor said they encountered the carcass. Both neighbors said, prior to the discovery, they believed the bull was being neglected.

“They would feed it every four days; they would water it every once in a great while. I wanted to jump my fence so many times and give it food,” said Camacho.

Camacho, who’s been living at his Rio Rancho home for a year, claimed the bull’s living conditions never changed. He said, every morning, he would walk out to see molding hay on the ground, and the bull fenced up in close quarters. This was up until a few days ago, when Camacho said he noticed something wasn’t right.

“I saw it passed away in the pen, they left it there for a day, and then I saw them out there with flashlights the next evening.” The next thing Camacho saw, the carcass was out on the mesa, “They dragged it out there. It was in the middle of the road, so they didn’t even try to hide it or anything in the brush or in the sage or anything. It was just laying there,” he added.

Photos show the bull’s overgrown hooves and a worn-down horn.

“I want to be his voice because he had a miserable life. It was actually pitiful to watch, his head was always down. You could hear him bellowing out once in a while you can tell he was hungry,” said Camacho. Neighbors said they involved New Mexico’s Livestock Board as well as local law enforcement. KRQE reached out to those agencies but did not hear back.

The owners of the bull did not want to go on camera but claimed the bull died after getting its head stuck in a fence. They would not explain why they moved the animal out onto the mesa.  They say they will wait to resolve the matter in court.