Florida woman mercilessly drowns pet labrador in bathtub, tells cops it was 'barking too much'
BRADENTON, FLORIDA: A Florida woman has been arrested and charged after she admitted to drowning her dog because it barked all the time.
The horrific incident unfolded on November 5 while a maintenance man was working on the A/C unit at the 1st Avenue, Bradenton, home of 43-year-old Margaret Kinsella, according to WWSB.
The maintenance man told police that while he was at the home, Kinsella took her adult brown Labrador out of its kennel for a walk and that when she returned, she went into the bathroom with the dog and closed the door.
He said he could hear screaming coming from the bathroom from both, the 43-year-old and her dog, and that he went to the door and asked her if she needed any help. He said she refused, and that a few minutes later, he heard even louder screaming.
At that point, the maintenance man reportedly opened the door and found the dog floating dead in the bathtub. He rushed inside and removed it from the water in an attempt to save it, but it was already too late.
Police were subsequently alerted to the incident, and when deputies questioned Kinsella, she is said to have admitted to purposely drowning the dog because she was angry that it barked all the time and bit her.
She claimed she had been struggling with a lot over the past year, including the death of her father and her husband, and that her anger had eventually built up to the point she took it out on her dog.
Kinsella was taken to Manatee Memorial Hospital to be evaluated under the Baker Act, a Florida law that enables families and loved ones to provide emergency mental health services and temporary detention for people impaired because of their mental illness.
However, on December 17, following a necropsy on the labrador, the 43-year-old was arrested and charged with aggravated animal cruelty, a third-degree felony.