A nurse in Florida has been charged with three counts of felony animal cruelty and one count of depositing poison in a public area after accusations to police were made that she had killed her neighbors’ pets with poison-laced chicken on Aug. 16, 2023.
The neighbors reported to authorities that 51-year-old Tamesha Knighten had repeatedly threatened to kill their animals if the animals came into her yard.
On the day of the poisoning, neighbors said Knighten also yelled at their children while they were outside playing.
When their cat began acting strangely, Knighten supposedly told them the animal had probably just swallowed a frog.
Polk County Sheriff’s office stated, “Two cats, named Luna and Pancake, along with a pregnant Chihuahua named Daisy, were killed by a highlyconcentrated amount of Phorate. This is a pesticide that is found in most insecticides. After further investigation, it was found that Knighten had laced the poison into chicken. She told us that she called it her special sauce that she liked to feed them.”
The chihuahua, Daisy, was pregnant with eight puppies when she passed away.
On Aug. 16, the neighbors’ cats died within hours of each other after both experienced symptoms of choking, foaming at the mouth, significant physical pain and an inability to breathe.
The family then noticed that Daisy was missing and when they found her she was deceased, as were the puppies in her womb.
During the investigation, authorities found a white Styrofoam bowl containing a white meat substance mixed with a dark material.
They later found video of Knighten wearing a glove and holding a similar bowl with a white and brown substance inside it. In the video she’s also talking to a relative and pointing at the neighbor’s yard.
Samples of the substance, the animals’ tissue and ant bait that Knighten allegedly claimed to be using had to be sent to University of Florida and analyzed by the veterinary pathology department as well as labs at Texas A&M University and Michigan State University before it could be confirmed that the animals ingested Phorate. After this was confirmed, Knighten was arrested and charged.
“These people lost their beloved pets in a most horrific way, and she lost her freedom by going to jail,” said Sheriff Grady Judd. “It takes a cold-hearted person to poison and kill two cats and a pregnant dog. It’s hard to imagine how a person in the medical field could do such a thing.”
