Wednesday, July 22, 2009

News Reel - Heat killed K-9 unit dog left in car

This was an interesting article. What do you do when the people enforcing the laws are the ones breaking them?


Heat killed K-9 unit dog left in car


Leaving dogs in cars when it is warm outside is just dumb. This police officer was in New Orleans, it was 88 degrees out on May 27th. He left the dog in an SUV. This is the third death in the same K9 unit within a short timeframe (one had heartworms and a heart attack, the other fell down an elevator shaft). The thing that bothers me the most?


Young (police spokesman) noted that while the necropsy report found a likely cause of death was "shock due to heat stress," the medical examination did not definitively find that the temperature inside the vehicle caused the heat-related symptoms. While Young acknowledged that the dog was left unattended in the vehicle, he said the report could not rule out the possibility that another medical problem caused the dog to overheat.


That leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

6 comments:

GoLightly said...

Now, that is dumb. Dumb.
Stoooopid.
Poor dog, jeeeeebers.

:(

Yeah, hard to tell what happened, when the dog is kinda boiled alive.

gah.
Poor dog.
Stupid cops.

Minnie-Moo (Rescue Lab) said...

A horrible and unnecessary death :-(

We have had a similar case in the UK recently - two police dogs died after being left in a private vehicle by their handler, in very hot weather :-( The officer has now been suspended from duty and is to face prosecution. Our punishment for animal cruelty is pretty poor over here but we're pleased that this has been taken seriously. Doesn't remove the poor dogs' suffering though :-(

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/8160753.stm

Minnie-Moo's mum

shane rocket said...

they should be held accountable. three? WTF? all avoidable! shame

Thoughts said...

IDIOTS. All of them. That poor dog.

mytwh said...

What the hell is wrong with people? And a K9 cop...doesn't he know better?? Wasn't he trained.

I live in Maine and while we haven't had much of a summer, we have had a few hot days. One day it was warm, not hot, maybe 70-72 (F)and I was absolutely freaking out that I had to leave Ziggy in the car to run in the grocery store and get a prescription. I parked in the shade and left the windows half down (so then of course I was worried someone would steal him) and I had to apologize to the clerk b/c I was rude to her b/c I was in such a rush. It took less than 5 minutes and Z was fine when I got back out, not even panting, but I still felt like an awful dog mother! I still feel guilty...How can someone who lives in a HOT state NOT realize, oh-I shouldn't leave my dog in the car...DUH!

DogsDeserveFreedom said...

GoLightly ...

Yeah ... boiled. Yuck that gives me some gross images.

Minnie-Moo ...

Thanks for posting the link. I'm glad they are prosecuting the handler. I wonder if basic things like that aren't included in training for the K9 units? Sounds dumb that they wouldn't include it, but I just can't figure out why there are so many with the same story?

shane rocket ...

Yeah, three and all three could have been prevented. Where are their heartworm prevention meds? You can treat heartworm ... it's reportedly painful, but can be done.

Thoughts ...

Yep.

mytwh ...

I've done that with my guys - left them in the car with the windows down in the shade in moderate weather (never hot - they stay home over 75 degrees or we go places they can come into). I also tend to keep a cup of water in the back cup holders that they know is theirs. I've never had an issue with them not being ok, but they could jump out the window if they weren't (I take my chances with people stealing the dogs)