PHOENIX -- A puppy was killed when a woman arguing with her boyfriend tried to keep him from driving away by placing her children at either end of his moving vehicle and then throwing her pet under the tire, Maricopa County, Ariz., sheriff's deputies said.

Lilliana Campo, 27, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with one count of felony animal cruelty, two counts of child endangerment and one count of domestic violence/disorderly conduct at her home in Phoenix.

Campo was trying to prevent her boyfriend, Gary Jeffries, from driving away during a heated argument, sheriff's deputies said. Witnesses told detectives that Campo first used her children, ages 1 and 3, to stop the man from driving away.

Campo allegedly placed her 3-year-old daughter in front of the pickup truck to stop Jeffries from driving forward and then threw her 1-year-old into the back of the vehicle to get him to stop moving, deputies said. Neither child was injured.

When those attempts failed, deputies said, Campo threw her 9-week-old puppy under the truck's rear tire as a roadblock, causing Jeffries to unknowingly run over the pet.

"We had him for a week," Jeffries said. "She had slept with the puppy by her side. It was like her child."

Detectives took the puppy to a nearby emergency vet clinic, where it had to be euthanized because of the severe nature of the injuries.

Campo was booked and released from jail.

"Since then she's doing good," Jeffries said. "We got her a new puppy."

Animal control officials said the woman is allowed to have the new puppy. But if convicted, she wouldn't be able to get new animals after that.

So far in 2007, the sheriff's office's animal cruelty investigations unit said it has investigated 1,111 cases of animal abuse.