A Copperas Cove woman who was indicted by a Coryell County grand jury on a felony animal cruelty charge told the Herald that she shot and killed a dog but that her actions were justified.
In January, a grand jury indicted Betty Louise Thomas, 64, and her daughter, Jessica Lynn Thomas, 35, on a third-degree felony charge of cruelty to non-livestock animals. Police said that either Betty Thomas or Jessica Thomas shot and killed a pregnant bulldog on March 20, 2021.
A justified killing?
Betty Thomas told the Herald on Tuesday that she shot the dog because it had killed her chickens earlier that day.
“My daughter and I had been out running errands; we were having a great day,” Thomas said. “We came home to find half of my chickens dead. I could see white feathers flying everywhere.”
Thomas said that she jumped out of her car and went to investigate.
“At first I thought I was going to find a fox or raccoon, but I found the dog tearing up one of my chickens,” she said. “I ran through the house and got my daughter’s .243-caliber rifle and I ran out of the back door. By that time, the dog was at my back porch barking at another chicken under the porch. I said, ‘No, you don’t,’ and put two rounds in the back of the dog.”
She said she loaded the dog and four of her dead chickens into a vehicle and took them down to the end of her driveway to the street.
“I wanted the owner of the dog to know that their dog was dead and why,” Thomas said. “She purposefully let her dog on my property, knowing that it would be killing my chickens. She should have gotten a citation; instead, we’re facing third-degree felonies.”
Thomas said that the criminal charge is the culmination of a dispute with another neighbor.
“There’s been a lot of back-and-forth, where they (a neighbor who lives on the same road but not the owner of the dog) would sabotage our property and we’d get back at them,” Thomas said. “It’s been hell since then. They want us to move away but we’re not leaving.”
She said that the owner of the dog was that neighbor’s employee.
When asked if she wishes that day would have gone differently, Thomas indicated that she did.
“It might sound strange, but my soulmate is a dog,” she said.
Thomas said that she has lived on her property for 18 years.
“Within the first five years here, we started raising chickens for their eggs and we’ve been free-ranging chickens ever since,” she said.
The accusation
On the afternoon of March 20, 2021, a Coryell County sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to the 1000 block of Lutheran Church Road in reference to a dog being shot, according to the arrest affidavit.
Upon arrival, the deputy said he could tell the dog was deceased. He said that he found four dead chickens around the dog’s carcass; but when he looked in the dog’s mouth, he did not see feathers or blood and some of the chickens appeared to have been dead for a period of time as rigor mortis had set in.
The deputy located two gunshot wounds in the dog.
Several witnesses told police that they had heard two gunshots. One witness “said that while he was walking down the roadway, Jessica Thomas yelled at him that she had shot the dog,” according to the affidavit.
When the deputy met with Jessica Thomas, she allegedly told police that she was in the back of the house and that her mother, Betty Thomas, had shot the dog because it killed her chickens.
Police later learned from a veterinarian that the dog was pregnant with a litter of 9 puppies, according to the affidavit.
The person who owned the dog said that it was a 2-year-old English bulldog and that none of her dogs have ever been on the property owned by Betty and Jessica Thomas. The person provided pictures that showed the Thomas’s free-range chickens on her property.
Thomas said that since the Herald published the story on the indictment, she has been forced into early retirement and has been confronted by people on the street.