After ‘euthanization’ failed, Florida woman used this to beat her dog to death, records say

Rather than risk “traumatizing” her injured dog by taking it to the vet, an Englewood woman instead killed the dog at her home.

Tammy L. Ewing, 55, was charged with felony torture of an animal with intent to hurt, injure or kill, court records show. She was arrested on a warrant Wednesday, court records show.

Ewing admitted to investigators she tried to euthanize her dog, Sophie, who had a torn ACL, by overdosing the dog at her Englewood home using a “mixture of barbiturates and Tylenol PM” on Jan. 13, according to a Charlotte County Animal Control letter to the State Attorney’s Office requesting a warrant for her arrest in court documents.

The next morning, Sophie was still alive.

Realizing the “euthanization” was not successful, Ewing beat Sophie to death with a crowbar in the backyard and buried the dog, according to court documents.

Ewing said she didn’t take the dog to the veterinarian to be put down, even though she had the money, because she was afraid a trip to the vet “would be too traumatic” for Sophie, according to court records.

“Instead of opting to take the dog to a Veterinarian at that point she bludgeoned the dog to death in her backyard,” investigators wrote.

A necropsy was performed on Sophie and the findings were “consistent with the dog being beaten to death,” court records showed.

Ewing first appeared in Charlotte County court Thursday and is scheduled for arraignment on Aug. 20. She is being held in Charlotte County jail on a $7,000 bond, jail records show.