It’s more important than ever to keep an eye on dogs left in hot cars now that summer is still going strong and many places are hitting record-high temperatures.
Heat stroke is very common in dogs, and they won’t last long if they’re left in hot cars. Accidents can still happen, even if you think you’ve done everything you can to avoid them.
That’s what happened recently when a police dog died after being left in a hot car for too long without the air conditioning or any emergency safety features being turned on.
This is what the Arnold Police Department in Missouri said: Vader, a 4-year-old K9 working for the department, died on July 31 from being too hot.
According to the police department, Vader was left in a patrol car with the air conditioner on. This is “necessary and common practice” for K9s that are not actively working as police dogs.
When the police went back to the car, though, they found that the air conditioning system wasn’t working right.
The police also said that all of their K9 patrol cars have a failsafe system that sounds the horn, tells the handler, sets off the alarms and sirens, and rolls down the windows if the car gets too hot, but this backup system “failed to activate.”
Vader was rushed to the vet center, and while he showed “signs of improvement” at first, he later died.
“Unfortunately, we learned last night that Vader could no longer be treated, and he passed away from his injuries,” the Arnold Police Department wrote.
In their letter, the department said they were “looking into this tragedy to find out what went wrong.” Aside from that, they said they were sad about Vader’s death and asked people to pray for his manager and his family.
People were naturally heartbroken and emotional when they heard the news. Many of them wondered if more could have been done to stop this tragedy.
One person on Facebook responded to the post, “Common sense needs to change. Take the dog with you, just like a child.”
Another person wrote, “These dogs should never be left in a car for a long time, even if the car isn’t running.” “I know it was an accident, but no one else should have to go through this.”
Others mentioned that the emergency heat alarm system in the cars should be fixed or tested more often, since it didn’t work.
Vader isn’t the only police dog who has died after being left in a hot car; this happens all too often, either because officers don’t pay attention or, in this case, because the air conditioner and backup system aren’t working right.
A Missouri police dog named Horus also died after being left in a hot car overnight a few days before Vader.
Police dogs put their lives at risk to protect people, and it’s terrible that a hot car could hurt or kill them. Even though police cars have air conditioning and emergency alerts, it’s clear that these features can fail at any time.
We hope that Vader’s death and the deaths of all other K9s will lead to more steps being taken to protect their lives.
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