Connecticut Woman Hangs Her Dogs From A Leash, Says They Told Her To Do So
A Connecticut woman who hung her two dogs claims she committed the grotesque crime because her pets told her to do so.
Veronica Reyes, 22, hung her two Staffordshire terriers from a leash in the backyard of her Allentown Road home in Bristol on November 21 of last year, allegedly high on marijuana and prescription drugs.
The next day, a neighbor spotted one of her dogs hanging from a tree and reportedly observed the Connecticut woman place the dead dog in a trash bag and get a shovel to dig a hole in her backyard to bury the dogs, reports the New York Daily News. The neighbor informed Reyes’ landlord about what he had seen, and when the landlord went to investigate, he found a freshly filled hole in the backyard and discovered that the Connecticut woman and her dogs were missing.
The landlord filed a missing persons report with the Bristol police, but it was not until two weeks later that the Connecticut woman turned herself in to the police. Reyes has been charged with two felony counts of animal cruelty and is being held on $75,000 bail.
According to documents furnished by the police, the Connecticut woman claimed that she had been out in Waterbury with friends in November and smoked laced marijuana while she was on prescription pain killers and antibiotics after having her wisdom teeth taken out by the dentist.
When she returned home, she began hallucinating and “thought the walls and her two dogs were speaking with her.” It was at this moment that Reyes noticed a hanger close to the cage where the dogs were in and asked them, “You want me to hang you?”
Apparently, the dogs became hyper and excited and responded to her question with what the Connecticut woman thought was a “yes” for an answer. Reyes claims that she “felt like the dogs were telling her to hang them.”
She then took a chain and a leash and hung one dog before wrapping him in a black bag. The Bristol police suspect it was at this point that the neighbor noticed the Connecticut woman getting a shovel to dig a hole in her backyard. Reyes later killed the second dog in the same way, claim the police.
In court, Veronica claimed that she was hallucinating after consuming a cocktail of prescription drugs and marijuana and thought it was the dogs who told her to perpetrate the crime. She claimed that she was under immense stress following a recent breakup, according to NBC Connecticut.
However, that did not stop protesters from turning up outside the courthouse, complaining that charges of animal cruelty are too often dropped by the judges. Although some of them agreed that the Connecticut woman might be undergoing depression, they said it was no reason to kill innocents in such a grotesque manner.
Documents revealed that the Connecticut woman previously faced felony charges in Maryland, including car theft, felony escape, and assault on a police officer.
If Veronica Reyes is considered guilty, she may face up to five years in prison.
This is probably not the first time that an owner has killed her dogs claiming to be high on drugs, but this might well be the first time that someone has hung them and said that the dogs were asking for it.
[Photo via Shutterstock]
