RIO RANCHO, N.M. — A Rio Rancho woman is facing animal abuse charges for something her neighbor caught on camera the evening of Jan. 4.

“I always have my cameras pulled up, and I happened to look up when I heard yelling,” said Cyndi, the neighbor. “I saw her chasing the little white dog down the road. She’d stop, the dog would run from her. She’d close the door, drive a little further, and the dog would run from her again.”

When the woman pulled up to Cyndi’s curb, video appears to show her throwing a water bottle at the dog. Cyndi said the woman drove off before she could question her. However, she said the woman left the water bottle behind.

“I couldn’t believe what I saw. That was just completely uncalled for. It was shocking,” Cyndi said. “No animal should have to go through that, especially the size of the animal and the force that she launched that projectile at the animal was just completely uncalled for. Stunned the animal, obviously.”

Cyndi turned to neighbors on NextDoor for help in tracking the woman down.

“Not to get everybody worked up, but just to find out where she lived, so that we can, one, check on the animal and, two, so I could have an address to file the charges,” she said.

Cyndi said they found her name and address by the next morning.

“My whole goal was, let’s just let the proper authorities handle it,” she said.

Janelle Lira now faces a misdemeanor charge of animal cruelty. A Rio Rancho police officer found the dog in Lira’s yard and wrote the dog appeared to be wheezing in between barks when approached by the officer.

“If she’s doing that in public, under the cameras, what is she doing at home?” Cyndi questioned.

Court documents show police also charged Lira with battery in 2024. She was accused of hitting her sister-in-law’s daughter in the face at an indoor jungle gym. Prosecutors dismissed the case.

Cyndi said she hopes the outrage now turns toward something more positive.

“The animal laws in Rio Rancho are very lenient. I think we need to do more. But this is definitely the first step,” she said.