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A 3-year old Belgian Malinois trained to track and detect bombs for the Brown Country Sheriff’s Office was found unresponsive in the back of his handler’s patrol car on Wednesday.
While veterinarians are performing tests to determine the exact cause of death, it appears that K-9 Wix died of heat stroke.
Wix and his partner had been contracted to work security at the PGA Championship in Haven. Wix was left in the vehicle, with the air conditioner running. However, the patrol car’s air conditioner somehow failed, along with a backup safety feature put in place to prevent this very tragedy from happening.
A K-9 heat alarm installed in the patrol car is supposed to warn the officer when there is a problem. At a preset temperature, the cars red and blue lights are to switch on, the horn is supposed to begin honking, and the windows are supposed to automatically roll down. All of these features failed.
“So we’re basically looking at two failures here, we’re trying to find out why stuff didn’t activate,”Capt. Daniel Sandberg said in a press conference Thursday.
Although authorities warn against leaving dogs unattended in vehicles, it is a common practice among K-9 officers.
An investigation will determine if the officer did anything wrong. For now, Capt. Sandberg says his deputy is mourning the loss of a family member.
The cop should be arrested for animal abuse. Any other normal person would.
Lynn
says:AC or not, a dog should NOT be left in a car! ( Although authorities warn against leaving dogs unattended in vehicles, it is a common practice among K-9 officers.) WHY? Their fully trained and should be able to go anywhere the human(?) officer goes!
Viki Hoover
says:When are police departments going to start holding these negligent officers responsible ? He feels bad Wix died? He damn well should . He needs charged for animal abuse, fired and should be put on the registry to never be allowed to own an animal again. If they are not in the hot car, their canine officer should not be either. Ever !
The dog K-9 officer training needs to be shut down until these idiot officers learn how to take the dogs with them!! If this is a inconvenience, then you do not need the program in the first place!!! To many dogs are dying from negligence!!! Too Many… and these cheap vehicles you are keeping these dogs in need to be gotten rid of…How many more dogs have to die from these stupid officers????
Carolyn dalton
says:Demanding justice
Margaret
says:why are these officers leaving dogs in the car for long extended periods of time. that is not a good idea period!