NJ woman indicted on cruelty charge after drowning of caged puppy
A 47-year-old Morris County woman has been indicted on a charge of animal cruelty for the drowning death of a puppy in a cage last Spring.
A Passaic County grand jury returned one count of animal cruelty against Tonya Fea, of Jefferson, according to the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office.
Her arraignment is slated for March 16.
On April 30, the body of the young female golden retriever was found in Jennings Pond on Bonter Road in West Milford.
The dog was posthumously named "Jenny" by volunteers with The Last Resort Rescue, which offered a $1,200 reward for information leading to the person or people behind the upsetting find.
Fea admitted after her arrest in May that she submerged a caged dog in a pond but said that the puppy was already dead, police said.
However, a necropsy found that the dog died from asphyxiation, according to an affidavit of probable cause against Fea, as reported by NorthJersey.com.
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