Puppy Abuse A Sticky Issue

20-year-old University of Colorado student Abby Toll is facing felony animal abuse charges after she taped her boyfriend's puppy to the side of a refrigerator in a bid to teach the rambunctious animal a "lesson."

Toll used clear packing tape to adhere the eight-month-old dog (a Shiba Inu named Rex) to the appliance in her boyfriend's apartment. Toll was angry at her boyfriend Bryan for failing to get rid of the puppy (which had bit her a few days earlier). When Beck saw his dog stuck to the refrigerator, he told Toll, "Take him down," adding, "You are so sick!" Toll replied, "No, you are sick for not caring enough about me to get rid of the dog."

When cops responded at 5 a.m. to a "report of a male and female yelling" at Beck's apartment, they discovered that "Rex's body was completely encased in packing tape." When asked by the officers what was on the side of the fridge, Toll replied, "The dog." Toll added, "I know this looks really bad, but the dog bites. He is aggressive." When asked how long the puppy had been taped upside down to the side of the refrigerator, Toll replied, "Not long, like 20-30 minutes. It was just until he calmed down."

The animal, whose paws had also been bound with elastic hair ties, was clearly in pain and "yelped and screamed loudly" as cops worked to free him. "Rex just lay motionless, but breathing, on his kennel after he was removed from the tape." The puppy was handed over to the Boulder Valley Humane Society. Toll was turned over to county jailers.