This female pit bull was left in a Johnston apartment, its snout wrapped in electrical tape, without food or water, the police say.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

JOHNSTON — A pregnant 20-year-old woman muzzled two pit bulls with electrical tape and cooped them up in her apartment — without food or water — before she went to the hospital to give birth to her son, the police said yesterday.

Diana Tetrault, of 28 Osgood Ave., was charged with twin counts of animal cruelty — which are misdemeanors. She is scheduled to appear for arraignment in District Court, Warwick, this morning, according to Johnston police Maj. Ralph Bubar III.

Other residents heard the dogs whimpering and crying. On Sept. 26, they told an animal control officer that they hadn’t seen anyone visit the woman’s second-floor apartment since the morning of Sept. 23, according to Bubar.

After fielding the residents’ complaint, Officer Erin Medeiros went into the apartment and found both animals in emaciated condition and suffering from sores caused by the electrical tape wrapped around their snouts, Bubar said.

One of the pit bulls was locked in a cage in the kitchen, he said, adding that the enclosure was contaminated with urine and feces.

Some bloody electrical tape was wrapped up in a ball in the cage.

The other animal, Bubar said, was in another room, leashed to a closet door. The dog could not sit down because the line was too tight.

It was quieter because it was still muzzled, Bubar said.

It, too, was surrounded by urine and feces.

With help from landlord Darleen Rampini, the police had tried to telephone both Tetrault as well as the official leaseholder for the dwelling, Michelle Dexter.

While Medeiros was at the scene, Tetrault reached the police by telephone, calling from Woman & Infants Hospital.

She said she had delivered a baby boy and she didn’t know who was supposed to be caring for the dogs, Bubar said.

On Oct. 2, Rampini alerted the police that Dexter was in the apartment.

Dexter — who said Tetrault is her daughter-in-law — was questioned and investigators subsequently determined that Tetrault was responsible for the dogs, Bubar said.

Both dogs were placed in the care of the Providence Animal Rescue League.

The shelter’s executive director, John Harvey, allowed a photographer to take pictures of the animals, but he declined to comment on the dogs’ condition yesterday.

mreynold@projo.com