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COURIER NEWS (Elgin, Illinois) 11 August 07 W. Dundee woman accused of injuring her husband's pets (David Gialanella)
A West Dundee woman faces felony charges in Kane County after attacking her husband's pet lizards, killing one and severely injuring the other, authorities said Friday.
A grand jury this week indicted Sara Tinsley, 37, of the 500 block of South Second Street, with one count each of cruelty to animals and aggravated cruelty to animals for allegedly throwing one of the reptiles against the wall and stabbing the other with a butcher knife. Authorities say it was an act of vengeance against her husband, who is accused of battering her.
"She knew he loved the lizards," said West Dundee Police Chief Dave Sawyer in a phone interview Friday.
According to a report, officers visited the residence April 2 when Tinsley called in to report a domestic altercation that occurred between the couple a day earlier. There officers saw blood on the floor and discovered the lizards Fred and Ethel -- which authorities believe to be iguanas -- in a trash can, the report stated.
Police explained that Tinsley had engaged in a second argument with her husband, Harry -- this time over the phone -- in the hours before she called police and told him she was going to kill his prized pets. After that shouting match, she turned on the lizards, police said. The impact with the wall killed Ethel, but Fred survived the stabbing after a family friend brought him to a veterinarian, Sawyer said.
Harry Tinsley -- who turned himself in for questioning the same day police discovered his dead and injured pets -- was charged with one misdemeanor count of domestic battery for pushing and choking his wife during the prior day's altercation, authorities said.
Sawyer said officers have been called to the residence on subsequent reports of domestic disturbance since the incident in early April.
A young woman who answered the door Friday at the South Second Street home said Sara Tinsley has gone on vacation, and added that Harry Tinsley has moved to West Chicago.
Sara has been out of jail on $500 bond. She and Harry each are scheduled to appear separately before 16th Circuit Judge Grant Wegner later this month.
"We see goofy stuff, but I don't think we've ever had lizards," Sawyer said.
W. Dundee woman accused of injuring her husband's pets

If I feed a fence lizard to a grayband, is that animal cruelty?

DAN