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An Atlanta area man is facing upgraded charges in connection with a fight he had with his wife two months ago in which he beat her with her dog, then killed the Pomeranian by snapping its neck, police said.

Emmanuel Alfredo Tadeo, 27, of Sandy Springs, was in the Fulton County jail Wednesday facing felony animal cruelty and other charges, Channel 2 Action News reported.

Police said the charges stemmed from a May 19 disturbance at the home of Tadeo and his wife,  Andrea Jill Armintrout, in their condominium on Roswell Road.

“The argument started over him blaming his wife for his misfortunes in life,” said Capt. Steve Rose, spokesman for the Sandy Springs Police Department. The man had been drinking heavily, he said.

“It is probably one of the worst cases of animal cruelty that we’ve ever seen,” Rose added.

Rose said the man had kicked and stomped on the dog and at one point he swung the animal at his wife, striking her.

Tadeo initially was charged with battery and misdemeanor cruelty to animals, according to Fulton County jail records. He was released June 14 after posting $5,000 bond.

This week, prosecutors upgraded the charges to aggravated assault, aggravated battery, battery and two counts of cruelty to animals.

Armintrout was also arrested Friday and charged with one count of  obstruction, a misdemeanor. She was being held on $500 bond Wednesday.

Upset that her family’s parked car had been blocked by another vehicle, a Newark woman threatened and assaulted the car’s owner and threw her shih tzu into oncoming traffic, authorities say.

Honey Bey, 2 years old, died instantly.

Nearly ten months later, an Essex County grand jury indicted Haniyyah Barnes (above right) this week on charges of  animal cruelty, burglary, criminal mischief and theft, according to the Newark Star-Ledger

Prosecutors said a Newark police officer who happened to be patrolling in the area saw Barnes storm out of the house with one hand around the 4-pound dog’s throat and toss her into the street.

The argument began when Barnes went to the home of a neighbor who was allowing Barnes’ mother to park her car there. The homeowners vehicle was blocking it in the driveway.

Prosecutors say Barnes, 25, began screaming and kicked in the woman’s front door, then threatened and assaulted the woman.

At that point, Honey Bey, the 31-year-old homeowner’s dog, started barking. Barnes grabbed the dog and threw her into oncoming traffic, police said.

“It was a tiny dog that was barking instinctively to protect its owner,” said Assistant Essex County Prosecutor Michele Miller. “It wasn’t attacking the defendant. It went to see what the commotion was and paid for it with its life.”

If convicted, Barnes faces up to 10 years in prison on a second-degree burglary charge and five years for the third-degree animal cruelty count. She remains free on bail and an arraignment is scheduled for June 18 in Superior Court in Newark.

Barnes’ public defender could not be reached for comment. A relative told the Star-Ledger that Barnes “wasn’t in her right mind when she did it,” and that she believed alcohol played a role in the incident.

A Chicago area woman has been charged with animal cruelty after biting the family dog, police say.

Analise J. Garner, 19, of Lake in the Hills, returned home drunk over the weekend and bit her family’s 80-pound English bulldog at least three times, officers said.

According to the  Chicago Tribune, she was also charged with domestic battery and underage drinking.

Police were called to her home about 4 a.m. Sunday after neighbors reported loud noises, Sgt. Mike Smith said.

Garner scratched and hit her 37-year-old mother in the face and also bit her on the right hand. Three bite marks were found on the dog, he said.

“The bulldog finally did bite her back in self-defense,” Smith added. “There were no charges against the dog.”

Garner was released Monday from the McHenry County jail after posting bail on $3,000 bond. She is due in court  May 23.

Given the conflicting and changing accounts of a dog’s owner and his girlfriend, what killed Raider was a mystery — until police received a note left at the dog’s grave.

The couple had brought the mixed breed dog to an emergency veterinary clinic, where they initially explained Raider had fallen from their second floor balcony. But upon learning the dog was dead, the boyfriend said his girlfriend had thrown the dog off the balcony.

Police in Fishers, Indiana, meanwhile, investigating a complaint they’d received about a dispute at the residence, said they got similar conflicting reports when interviewing the boyfriend.

Detectives talked to neighbors, friends, and the veterinarian that tried to save the dog, but it was a note found later at the dog’s grave that led them to arrest the girlfriend, 28-year-old Sarah E. Rust, on animal cruelty charges last Friday. She was taken to the Hamilton County Jail.

In an interesting twist, police said they received the letter from the dog owner’s ex-girlfriend, and part owner of the dog, who found it at Raider’s grave.

Investigators say the letter was written by Rust:

“Dear Raider, First and foremost forgive me, but also forgive me and your daddy for fighting. We brought your life into our quarrel. You did not deserve to be any part of our combat. I ended your life, for which I am truly sorry my son.”

A National Parks ranger zapped a northern California resident with a Taser Sunday afternoon after an argument about walking his dog without a leash in a newly added section of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

The incident occurred around 4:45 p.m. when the man was walking two dogs — one leashed — at the Rancho Corral de Tierra open space, near the southern edge of McNee Ranch State Park.

A ranger working for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area stopped the man and an argument about his off-leash dog escalated, according to the Half Moon Bay Review.

The Rancho Corral area was an off-leash dog-walking spot until December when the National Park Service took over and required all dogs to be on a leash.

The San Francisco Chronicle identified the dog walker as Gary Hesterberg, of Montara, a coastal town south of San Francisco.

The ranger, whose name was being withheld by authorities, used her stun gun on Hesterberg because he continued walking despite orders to stop, Park Service spokesman Howard Levitt told the Chronicle.

Hesterberg was arrested by San Mateo County sheriff’s deputies and was booked for investigation of failing to obey a lawful order.

According to one witness, the dog walker dared the ranger to arrest him; he was walking away when the ranger pulled out her Taser.

The man collapsed on the ground, and the ranger began shouting at him to turn over so she could handcuff him. As a crowd gathered, the man shouted out his home address so that someone could take his dogs home.

An Oregon woman has been charged with first-degree animal cruelty for allegedly throwing her boyfriend’s dog into traffic on Interstate 205 Thursday night in Vancouver, Washington.

The dog, a Catahoula named Peanut Butter, was struck by a car and killed.

According to KATU, Shellie L. Hubbard, 45, appeared in Clark County Superior Court Friday, where a judge set bail at $20,000. Hubbard is also accused of second-degree assault and possession of methamphetamine.

Washington state troopers said Hubbard got into an argument with her boyfriend, Darwin Vonschirmer, while he was driving south on Interstate 205.  Hubbard struck him with a broken coffee mug, slicing his hand, police said. When he pulled over to the shoulder, Hubbard let the dog out of the car and threw the animal onto the highway, police said.

Peanut Butter was struck by a car while attempting to walk back to the shoulder of the freeway.

Vonschirmer told KATU he was in the process of breaking up with Hubbard when she reacted violently. He said he had taken the dog in about a year ago, after finding it on the side of the freeway.

Yet another report of jealousy-induced dog abuse has come to light — this one in Austin, where a woman is alleged to have repeatedly slammed her boyfriend’s 12-year-old shih tzu to the ground.

About a week ago, we told you about Patrick Caleb Land, who was sentenced in San Diego to five years in prison for beating his girlfriend’s three dogs to death because, he said, he was jealous of them.

Just three days after that, police in Austin responded to a report of a couple arguing and arrested Maria Martinez on a charge of cruelty to animals.

She’s accused of taking her boyfriend’s dog, Chase, a shih tzu mix, from his truck and throwing him into a Dumpster, KXAN reported.

She then climbed into the Dumpster, according to the boyfriend, lifted the dog above her head and threw him to the ground.

The dog’s owner also told police that Martinez poured bleach into Chase’s dog’s food in an attempt to poison the dog.

According to police, Martinez admitted that she and her boyfriend had argued all day and told officers she was mad and jealous of the dog.

Chase was being treated for his injuries.

A bicyclist who said he was intimidated by an off-leash neighborhood dog doused it with gasoline and threatened to set in on fire.

Another pit bull story? Nope. The ferocious beast at the center of this confrontation – a nine-pound ball of fluff named Benny — was a Lhasa Apso. Earlier reports that labeled the dog a Shih Tzu were incorrect, his owner, Frank Perlongo, told MySuburbanLife.com.

Daniel Maskill, 53, of Riverside, Ill., was arrested and charged with misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and assault after the Tuesday night confrontation. 

According to Riverside police, Maskill was bicycling home through Harrington Park with a can of gas he had just purchased gas for his lawnmower when he encountered the dog.

“He was upset it was off leash,” Riverside Chief Thomas Weitzel told the Chicago Tribune. “He said he felt intimidated.”

Maskill threatened to set the dog and its owner on fire, and, although he never struck a match, Maskill did douse the 9-pound dog with gas, Weitzel said.

Weitzel said the assault charge stemmed from Maskill’s alleged threat to the owner.

The owner told police he likes to let his dog romp in the park, but town rules require dogs be on leashes. The owner was issued a citation.

(Photo: This is not the Lhaso Apso involved in the incident, but one we met in our travels — Tugg, of Seattle)

A former Marine known for taking great pride in his suburban Chicago lawn has been charged with fatally shooting a neighbor who let his dog urinate on the man’s front yard.

University Park, Illinois, resident, Charles Clements, 69, a former Marine, is being held on a $3 million bond in connection with the fatal shooting last Sunday of 23-year-old Joshua Funches, ABC News reported.

Patricia Funches, the victim’s mother, said Clements followed her son home, pulled out his gun, and shot him.

Police say Joshua Funches’ fox terrier urinated on Clements’ lawn, leading to an exchange of words between the two men. When police arrived at the scene, they found Funches bleeding on the ground in front of a vacant house.

Funches, a father of two, suffered a single gunshot wound in the abdomen, and his death was ruled a homicide.

Clements was famous for the upkeep on his well-manicured lawn, winning several local beautification awards. He kept a sign posted on his mailbox urging letter carriers not to walk on his grass.

The trial of Abby Toll, the former University of Colorado student accused of taping a dog to a refrigerator during a dispute with her boyfriend, came to a dramatic end last week, with a guilty verdict and protests from Toll that she didn’t act alone.

Minutes after a jury convicted her on a felony charge of animal cruelty for  sticking her boyfriend’s shiba inu upside-down on the side of a refrigerator,  Toll insisted she was not solely responsible for the abuse.

“Bryan Beck knows what he did to that dog,” the Boulder Daily Camera quoted Toll as saying, referring to her ex-boyfriend. When asked by a reporter if Beck taped the dog to the refrigerator, she answered, “Yes he did.”

Neither Beck nor Toll testified in the case.

The shiba inu — then named Rex — had his legs, snout and tail bound with hair ties and packing tape before being taped upside down to a refrigerator in a Boulder apartment last April.

The guilty verdict came after two hours of deliberation. Toll, who now lives in Chicago, faces up to 18 months in prison. She is scheduled to be sentenced May 28.

Her attorney, George Kokus, said Colorado’s felony animal cruelty statute was misapplied in the case. Before the law was put on the books in 2002, animal cruelty violations were treated as misdemeanors in Colorado.

“The legislature’s intent was that this law should be used on serial animal abusers,” Kokus said. “The serial murderers of cats and dogs, that has a systematic torture plan to it.” Kokus, in the interview in the video above, also seems to imply that Beck played a role in the taping.

During the trial, animal-rights advocates stood outside the Boulder County Justice Center with signs protesting animal abuse.

The dog has since been adopted and is living in a new home, under a new name.