HOUSTON – Yesica Tzoc, 26, appeared before a judge Friday and the crimes she's accused of committing, unthinkable.
According to court documents, Tzoc killed the family's dog by stuffing a parakeet down its throat and using a metal curtain rod to force it down.
"That's never good to hear and to know that happened over here, that's been the first time I've heard of that, anything like that happening over here," neighbor Sharlet Odems said.
Police showed up to the family's home on Oct. 15 for a disturbance call and said they found Tzoc's 6-year-old daughter with bruises on her face and legs.
Her next-door neighbor said he heard about what happened afterwards.
My son, he saw the little kid and that there were bruises everywhere," neighbor Efrain Basto said.
Investigators said the child was hit by her mother several times with a wooden stick and that she used a jacket to cover her child's mouth while hitting her.
While being interviewed later by police, Tzoc said it was because her daughter was getting in trouble at school.
"Try to do whatever you can to help your kids out and improve, that's not the way to handle it," Odems said.
The family's dog was found dead in a cardboard box and wrapped up in curtains at a nearby dumpster.
Tzoc told investigators she wanted to feed the bird to the her dogs, "as they've been wanting to eat them for a while."
"I used to talk to her and her husband and when they told me she was doing that I couldn't believe it," Basto said.
Tzoc is being held in the Harris County Jail in lieu on felony charges of animal cruelty and injury to a child.
"I think that's the best thing they can do," Basto said. "Especially when they do something with kids. I'm a dad and I wouldn't do that to my kids. It's unbelievable."