MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. – A Florida woman is facing a felony animal cruelty charge after allegedly drowning her dog in the bathtub, police say.
Margaret Kinsella, 43, told deputies she purposely killed her Labrador retriever because she was upset that the dog barked all the time, USA Today reported.
She confessed, “I drowned my dog,” Manatee County Sheriff’s Office deputies wrote in the arrest report. Kinsella was taken into custody once a necropsy determined the dog’s cause of death. Authorities charged her with a third-degree felony under Florida law and ordered her to appear in court Jan. 10.
The drowning occurred on Nov. 5, an affidavit said, while maintenance workers were repairing Kinsella’s air conditioning unit. Kinsella took the chocolate lab on a walk around 2 p.m., maintenance worker Wilfredo Asia told investigators, and went into the bathroom with the dog upon their return. Asia then heard screaming and asked Kinsella if she needed help but she refused, the affidavit said.
Minutes later, Asia heard the screaming intensify and opened the bathroom door, according to the affidavit. Asia saw the dog floating in the bathtub, deputies wrote, and rushed to remove it.
In interviews, Kinsella allegedly told deputies that her anxiety and depression increased as she dealt with the deaths of her husband and father in the past year. She said she became angry after the dog barked and bit her, driving her to drown the animal, according to the affidavit.
Kinsella was booked into jail Dec. 17 and later released on a $5,000 bond. If found guilty, she could face a fine of up to $10,000 per Florida law.
