Officer leaves dog in hot car, causing death
Salt Lake City, UT (US)Incident Date: Friday, Jul 14, 2000
County: Salt Lake
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: police officer
An unidentified Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent allegedly left his drug sniffing dog in a hot car on July 14.
Lady, a beagle trained to detect illicit drugs for the Metro Narcotics Task Force in Salt Lake City, died after being left in a car in 100 degree plus temperatures for several hours. The name of the agent is not being released because he is an undercover agent.
Alpine City attorney David Church said the agent has been charged with negligent cruelty because "he obviously didn't intend on killing the dog." The negligent cruelty charge to an animal is a class C misdemeanor. If convicted, the agent could spend 3 months in jail and pay a fine of $750.
The DEA has declined to release the circumstances surround the officer's decision to leave the dog in the car.
The agent in charge of Utah's DEA office, Don Mendrala, was out of the office and unavailable to comment on the case which has received criticism from the Humane Society of Utah. Mendrala has declined to speculate on any possible disciplinary action against the agent.
The executive director of the Humane Society, Gene Baierschmidt, released a statement applauding the decision to charge the agent.
"We have received numerous calls and letters from the community inquiring about the progress of an investigation in this case. They don't consider this a trivial matter, and neither do we." References
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