McAllen police arrested a woman after officers found one of her two dogs dead by strangulation.
Sharon Gonzalez was charged with two counts of animal cruelty to non-livestock animals.
Last Thursday, police responded to 10108 N. 12th St. in reference to animal cruelty.
According to the complaint, an officer spoke to an animal warden only identified as N. Garcia, who said he was there for a welfare concern regarding two dogs at the residence.
Garcia also said he called Gonzalez, and she allowed the officers to enter her backyard.
In the backyard, the authorities found two female dogs tied up to a metal rebar pole with “heavily” entangled cables and ropes and noticed that the black blue heeler mix was dead.
The other dog, a brown pit bull mix named Scarface, was struggling to get loose from the entangled cables.
The document said Garcia had to cut Scarface free from the cables and she immediately went to a nearby bucket and began to drink water.
“Warden Garcia stated that Scarface seemed to have severe signs of dehydration and was gasping for air,” the complaint said.
Garcia provided photos to police that showed the makeshift collar wrapped around Scarface’s neck was made into a knot to restrain the dog, according to the document.
“The collar created is not a proper collar and as the dogs tangled the rope (it) caused the knot to tighten around their necks causing the dogs to choke and suffocate,” the complaint said.
Gonzalez said she knew the dogs were getting tangled up since 6:30 a.m. that day and had untangled them before leaving her residence.
Gonzalez was released from jail on $9,000 in bonds that same day.
