New York:
A woman has been arrested for animal cruelty in Connecticut after she allegedly starved to death a friend's pet dog.
Carla Bushnell was arrested by police in Enfield after the dog's owner complained that a family friend failed to look after his pet after promising to do so.
Andrew Zander told TV Station NBC Connecticut that Bushnell, a supposed family friend, insisted on taking care of his dog Bandit as he assisted his wife for a few months in a hospital in Massachusetts.
But then he got the heart breaking call that Bandit had been neglected and was found dead in his home by a mailman.
"I immediately broke down," Zander told the station. "That dog was not my pet...he was my son."
Bandit was discovered only after the postal worker saw the mail pile up at the residence and looked in a window.
"There was no reason for my wife or I to have any doubts she would be a good caretaker. She insisted she wanted to take care of them," an anguished Zander told the station.
"I would have rather seen him just pass of old age. I would rather see him be hit by a car than forced to starve to death."
Bushnell declined to speak to the station after posting bail on Friday, New York Daily News reported.
Zander and Bushnell could not be reached for comment, the paper said.