Man accused of beating neighbor's dog to death charged with cruelty to animals

TEXAS -- A north Harris County man allegedly used a club and an unknown object to beat a neighbor's dog to death, according to law enforcement records.

Jose Alfredo Garcia, 37, is charged with animal cruelty, accused of beating the dog on the evening of June 1 in the 2300 block of Brea Crest Street, a Harris County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman said.

The dog's owner called the sheriff's office about 10:40 p.m. June 1 to report an injured or dead dog, the spokeswoman said. He told authorities that he heard what sounded like someone chopping wood in his neighbor's yard, she said.

"When he looked over the fence, he saw his neighbor swinging some sort of stick or club at some sort of object on the ground," spokeswoman Tebben Lewis said.

When the man with the club saw the neighbor looking over the fence, he ran to another area of the property, Lewis said. That's when the neighbor saw that it was his dog, which appeared injured or dead.

Garcia remained in jail Monday on $10,000 bail. He was scheduled to appear in the 262nd State District Court, according to court documents.

(Houston Chronicle - June 30, 2014)