A Florida nurse who allegedly poisoned two cats and a pregnant dog faces three counts of felony animal cruelty and one of depositing poison in a public area. Polk County Sheriff's Office announced Thursday that they arrested Tamesha Knighten, 51, after the three pets were killed.
Deputies said the two cats, Luna and Pancake, were found choking, foaming at the mouth and "in obvious significant pain." The cats died within hours of each other. Then, four hours later, a pregnant Chihuahua, Daisy, was found dead by her owners, according to sheriff's officials. Knighten's neighbors told deputies she threatened to poison their pets if the animals came into her yard.
"On the day that the pets died, they noticed Knighten pacing in her yard along the shared fence line. She had also yelled at the victims' children that day, who were outside playing ball," the sheriff's office said in a release.
Deputies reportedly found a styofoam bowl outside Knighten's home with "a white meaty substance mixed with a dark colored material." It matched bowls in her kitchen, police say, and tested positive for Phorate, a potent poison widely used as insecticide. She denied it was hers, but security footage showed her carrying the bowl while wearing rubber gloves, and when they told her the bowl looked like it contained tuna, she replied, "It wasn't tuna, it was chicken."
