Man arrested for alleged sexual abuse of horse in…

This story contains graphic descriptions of an alleged act of sodomy. The reader should approach the story discreetly.

A Texas couple expressed their outrage on Sunday, saying they caught an Evanston, Wyoming man sexually abusing their horse during a brief stop at the local rodeo grounds.

“I’m posting this because I don’t want this to happen to anyone’s horses again,” Carly Rudd of Fort Worth, Texas, wrote in a public Facebook post to the Evanston Rodeo community on Sunday. She said she will not stop in Evanston with her horses again.

Carly Rudd and her husband Levi Rudd arrived in Evanston from Casper around 3 a.m. Sunday, took care of the horses and went to sleep, Carly wrote.

Sometime after 4 a.m., Levi noticed some lights still on near the horses. He went to turn them off, heard a commotion, and saw a man “basically raping” their mare with his arm, Rudd wrote.

The man tensed up as if he wanted to hit Levi, then Levi grabbed the man and held him until police responded, according to Carly’s post and court documents.

James Thomas Botkin was arrested following the incident. He has been in the Uinta County Detention Center since Monday and is now charged with sodomy.

The penalty for this violation can be up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.

A brawl

An affidavit filed in the case on Monday reflects Carly’s contribution.

It states that the police dispatch center sent Uinta County Sheriff’s Deputy Jarrod Asay to the Uinta County Fairgrounds because of a report of a man caught raping a horse.

“The man was detained by the horse owner,” the Asay operations center said in an affidavit.

At the scene, Carly and Levi said their family arrived at the fairgrounds around 3 a.m. Levi unloaded the horses and locked them in the stables at the north end of the grounds, just north of the main arena, the document says.

After tending to the horses and getting ready for bed, Levi realized he had left a light on outside. As he approached the stable, he noticed a man, later identified as Botkin, standing behind his horse with his entire right arm stuck inside the horse’s vagina, according to the document containing Levi’s interview.

“What the hell are you doing?” Levi screamed.

Botkin jumped out of the booth and “bowed” toward Levi as if he was going to hit him, the affidavit states. Levi attacked the man and a scuffle ensued, the report says.

Levi overpowered Botkin while Carly called for help.

The document states that the horse began to behave strangely: its tail was stiff and sticking out and it was bleeding from the puncture site.

Asay and the Rudds discussed veterinary care options and Asay gave the Rudds his contact information so they could send him the horse’s diagnosis and medical examination.

Asay then went to Evanston Regional Hospital, where Botkin was now being treated.

Botkin suffered a broken sinus as a result of the scuffle, Asay noted in the affidavit.

The document states that Botkin’s sweatshirt was obviously stained with horse manure and blood and that it smelled of “manure and bodily fluids.”

After Botkin was medically examined, he was taken to Asay’s patrol car in handcuffs. He told Asay he would likely be arrested for “trespassing,” the affidavit states.

In the interview room

Asay later took Botkin to an interrogation room for a recorded interview.

Botkin refused to say what had happened.

“Then I asked James if he was a veterinarian,” Asay wrote.

Botkin reportedly answered “no” to that question, as well as to a question about whether he was interested in veterinary school.

In a phone conversation later that morning, Carly said the family went to South Valley Equine Veterinary, where they noticed the horse had developed hives, the affidavit states.

The veterinarian reportedly said the horse suffered vaginal trauma and bleeding and attributed the hives to high stress.

The stress could lead to potentially fatal colic, Carly added in the affidavit.

They were told to keep a close eye on the horse.

New law

There was no law against sodomy in Wyoming until 2021.

Republican state Rep. Clark Stith of Rock Springs drafted the bill this year in response to a 2020 horse abuse incident in his hometown of Sweetwater County, he told Cowboy State Daily.

Authorities were frustrated at the time because they were unable to prosecute the suspect, Stith added.

Many sexual acts involving animals may not be covered by Wyoming’s animal cruelty laws.

“That was a loophole in the law that I wanted to close,” he said.

Since then, Stith has been surprised that the law has been indicted so often.

“It turned out to be more common than I thought,” Stith said.

Stith also said that Deputy Asay appeared to be “attentive” during that investigation, as Asay asked Botkin if Botkin was a veterinarian.

The Sodomy Act provides exceptions for veterinarians when carrying out certain tasks, such as artificial insemination.

Claire McFarland can be reached at [email protected].