New mom charged with muzzling dogs

NBC 10 News
Published: October 7, 2008

JOHNSTON, R.I.—A woman allegedly muzzled her two pit bull dogs with tape and left them in her apartment without food or water for two days while she went to the hospital to give birth, police said.

Johnston police say the 20-year-old woman muzzled her two pit bull dogs with tape and left them in her apartment on Osgood Avenue without food or water for two days. Police found one pit bull in a bedroom closet with its mouth taped shut. The dog’s leash was so tight it was choking itself.

Diana Tetrault pleaded not guilty Wednesday to two misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. She was released on $2,000 bail and ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation before appearing later this month in District Court in Warwick.

Neighbors heard the dogs whimpering last week and told police they hadn’t seen anyone visit the apartment for two days, according to Johnston Police Maj. Ralph Bubar III. An officer found the animals emaciated with wounds from electrical tape that was wrapped around their snouts.

In a handwritten statement after her arrest, Tetrault took responsibility for her dogs’ condition and admitted to taping the dogs’ snouts shut, Bubar said.

But George Tetrault, who said he was Tetrault’s grandfather, said he could not believe the woman would do that. “She loved those dogs very dearly,“ Tetrault said.  He said someone else had promised to care of the dogs while she was in the hospital.

“She had no idea what was going on,“ he said.