Horse that launched animal-mutilation UFO lore lands on eBay

Deborah Frazier, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 5, 2006 at midnight

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Snippy, a horse that died mysteriously in an Alamosa field in 1967, is back in the news thanks to eBay.

The Appaloosa mare's death drew international media attention when her owner, Nellie Lewis, said the 3-year-old was mutilated by space aliens.

There were no tracks or blood on the ground, but the skin and flesh from the withers to the head were removed, exposing the bone.

Lewis told the world media there was a strange, sweet odor that she likened to incense on the rural ranch in the area where Snippy's remains were found.

The stories grew - the heart and brain were missing, too - and Snippy became the first reported case of animal mutilation by visitors from space.

Snippy, or Snippy's skeleton, dropped out of sight for decades, only to surface last week on eBay with a minimum bid of $50,000.

"Whether it was a UFO or aliens or not, it is history," said Frank Duran, a marketing specialist for Dell's Insurance in Alamosa.

Duran said he posted Snippy on eBay after an attorney for a local man's estate asked him to market the famed set of bones.

But Monday, Duran put the Snippy bidding on hold because the local chamber of commerce and a relative of Lewis' have claimed ownership.

"When I was a kid, I remember that Snippy was displayed at the chamber of commerce," said Duran, who created the www.snippy.com Web site to market the mare.

"At some point, the chamber was going to throw her away, and a guy, Herman Doty, took her with the dream of opening a museum," he said. "It didn't happen."

In the mid-1970s, the Lewis family donated Snippy to the Luther Bean Museum at Adams State College, where she was displayed until the 1980s, Duran said.

From there, Snippy moved to the home of Carl Helfin, a local collector. Helfin died in 2003, and the much heralded horse skeleton was part of the estate, Duran said.

With Snippy's legal ownership undetermined, Duran said he would like to see her displayed at the San Luis Valley Museum.

"We could try to raise some money," he said.

Dr. Wallace Leary, an Alamosa veterinarian, reconstructed Snippy's skeleton in 1968 and debunked the space aliens theory by finding two bullet holes in the horse.

"The shots came from a .22-caliber and were in the left pelvic bone and the right thigh bone," Duran said.

"That probably wouldn't have killed her."

Wildlife experts have said that coyotes frequently leave surgical-style cuts in carcasses, but Snippy's space-alien legend grew, fed by Lewis' stories.

Lewis said the marks on the ground around Snippy included six indentations that formed a circle 3 feet in diameter, the sort of imprint a UFO might leave, according to news accounts.

Lewis said she picked up a piece of the horse's mane and it burned her hands. Later, the boots she was wearing were found to be radioactive, she said.

Two years after Snippy's death, area residents said no grass would grow on the site where the carcass was found.

Over the years, the San Luis Valley has became a mecca for people who wanted to see flying saucers. Hundreds of sightings have been reported to the county sheriff's office.

The trend started with Snippy.

"People are starting to be a lot more open to UFOs and aliens," Duran said.

"People are starting to say maybe it did happen."

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