CIBOLO, Texas – Butter was much more than a rescue dog to Jordan Campos and her husband.
The couple’s sprawling property in Cibolo offered the Staffordshire Terrier mix a place to call home.
However, the idyllic bond between owner and dog was shattered in December 2024 after an incident outside their house.
“What really we struggle with, I think, is that we had created such a safe, happy space for her,” Campos said. “She was so happy here.”
An Amazon driver arriving at the property missed the sign at the front gate that instructed him to leave the packages there. Instead, he tried to deliver them to the front door.
Butter then bit the driver.
Cibolo Animal Services Officer Monique Mora responded to the home.
‘I can’t get the noose around its neck’
Internal Cibolo records and a transcript of Mora’s remarks recorded on a body-worn camera describe what happened next.
Mora, who had worked for Cibolo Animal Services for a little more than a year, radioed her manager for assistance after being unable to secure Butter with a catchpole in the screened-in back porch of the home.
After the manager called Mora on the phone, Mora was heard saying, “I’m going to need some help getting this dog. It’s trying to charge at me, and I can’t get the noose around its neck.”
Noose was an apparent reference to the loop section at the end of the catchpole.
Eventually, Butter escaped through a porch window and ran to various parts of the property. Records show Butter was secured with the pole after the dog hid under a parked ambulance.
As a Cibolo police officer helped Mora pull the dog out from underneath the vehicle, Mora remarked that the catchpole loop was “too tight” around the dog’s neck.
A second catchpole was eventually used to secure Butter’s back legs. With the help of two EMT’s at the scene, Mora and the officer lifted Butter into a Cibolo Animal Services vehicle and secured her in a kennel.
A subsequent investigation of Mora conducted by a Cibolo police lieutenant noted that Mora proceeded with lifting the dog into the vehicle even though Mora “expressed concern that lifting the canine with the catchpole could result in choking.”
The report also stated Mora failed to wait for assistance from additional animal control officers before continuing to restrain the dog — even though Mora herself had radioed for assistance.
Campos, who was out of town at the time of the incident, told KSAT her husband came home that evening and found a note on the front door. According to the note, Butter had bitten someone and was in the custody of Cibolo Animal Services.
‘They locked her in the cages and she spent the night suffering’
Campos’ husband went to Cibolo Animal Services early the next morning.
“He called me afterwards ,and he said, ‘She looks awful,’” Campos said.
Campos told KSAT that animal services declined to get Butter medical attention. At first, she said, the agency refused to release the dog to be treated by an outside veterinarian.
“They locked her in the cages and she spent the night suffering. And they were going to keep her there suffering for 10 days,” said Campos, referring to the state-mandated 10-day quarantine imposed on an animal that bites or scratches a person.
Campos said animal care officials eventually relented and allowed her husband to take Butter to a vet.
The dog was diagnosed with a broken jaw, internal bleeding and was now blind, according to medical records provided to KSAT by the Campos family.
Photos of Butter show the blood vessels in both of her eyes had ruptured.
The couple made the difficult decision to have their dog euthanized.
“She knew from the get-go she couldn’t handle this,” said Campos, who took issue with Mora’s actions that day and the lack of detail included in her initial report.
Days later, Campos filed a formal complaint against Mora.
Mora’s original report on the bite indicated that Butter was “running at large,” even though the dog wore a shock collar that prevented her from leaving the property.
The same shock collar was left on Butter after she was taken into custody, which meant she was likely shocked until being driven far enough away from the device’s range.
“It’s always heartbreaking when you lose a pet. But it is especially heartbreaking when you lose a pet to horrible violence,” said Campos.
After she and the lieutenant raised concerns about her proficiency using the device, internal records note Mora was temporarily removed from using the catchpole as part of her duties in January 2025.
The lieutenant’s investigation of Mora, which was completed in March 2025, recommended that she be suspended for three days, be given a letter of counseling and should go through training on de-escalation, decision making and report writing.
A day after the lieutenant issued the report, the police department posted a video on social media that featured Mora and other animal services staff and thanked them for their work.
The clip was titled: “Paw-sitively Amazing.”
Last May, records show Cibolo’s police chief reversed the lieutenant’s findings and wrote that the listed policy violations against Mora were not sustained.
Weeks later, in June, Mora was issued a letter of counseling after a large dog in her care collapsed, possibly due to a catchpole around its neck being too tight, records show.
The letter states Mora failed to document the animal’s injuries or get the animal evaluated by a veterinarian.
‘I think this was 100% a miscarriage of justice’
Last year, Christina Lichtenberg encountered Mora after attempting to surrender her dog to Cibolo Animal Services.
Lichtenberg and her husband had split up. She was unable to bring the couple’s dog, Flash, to her new residence.
“I was moving into an apartment that would not accept that breed,” said Lichtenberg.
Lichtenberg attempted to hand over Flash to Cibolo Animal Services last April. However, she received an email from the department’s manager stating that owner surrenders were not being accepted at that time, records obtained by KSAT Investigates show.
Lichtenberg eventually left Flash along with food and water with her ex-husband, who was the dog’s registered owner, and his mother.
“She ended up taking Flash to my vacant home and leaving him in the backyard,” Lichtenberg said. “She did let animal control know what she had done.”
Lichtenberg said she then got a call from Mora, who told her the incident could be investigated as a dog abandonment case.
“She seemed unsympathetic entirely to the whole situation,” said Lichtenberg, who told KSAT she had a growing sense after the call that she was going to be criminally blamed for what occurred.
Months later, Lichtenberg was informed that a warrant had been issued for her arrest for misdemeanor cruelty to a non-livestock animal.
Lichtenberg was formally charged in late October. She also said her ex-mother-in-law was given a municipal citation over the incident.
“This is not something that I took lightly. I adored Flash. He was such a wonderful dog,” Lichtenberg said. “I did not want to surrender him. I had no other choice.”
A prosecutor with the Guadalupe County Attorney’s Office told KSAT the office will dismiss the animal cruelty charge in exchange for Lichtenberg completing 10 hours of community service and making a donation to an animal care facility.
The prosecutor declined to discuss additional details from the case since it is still pending.
Lichtenberg said she plans to accept the plea deal. The case was reset last week to May 27.
Asked if Mora had acted professionally while investigating the incident, Lichtenberg told KSAT: “Not at all. Not at all. I think this was 100% a miscarriage of justice. I think that she did a terrible job investigating. Her job is to protect animals, but I think also her job is to be involved with her community, as well. And she needs to make a connection with her community.”
Separate complaint accused Mora of harassment, filing false charges
In a separate incident last August, records show a Cibolo resident accused Mora of harassment and filing false charges after his dog and another dog bit each other.
A citation filed against the man for having an out-of-date rabies vaccine for one of his other dogs was thrown out in court after Mora acknowledged she made a mistake. She said the timeline and the vaccine were, in fact, current at the time of the incident, according to records.
Cibolo officials determined the allegations against Mora for harassment and filing false charges were unfounded. Records show the investigation was closed without Mora being disciplined.
Mora did not respond to an email seeking comment for this story.
A City of Cibolo spokesperson declined a request from KSAT to interview Cibolo Animal Services leadership for this story and told KSAT the agency does not comment on personnel matters.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.