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Police dog dies after being left in hot patrol truck

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badboy78660

Member
http://kutv.com/news/local/cache-county-k9-handler-charged-for-leaving-dog-in-hot-truck-leading-to-its-death

Cache County, Utah — (KUTV) Criminal charges have been filed by prosecutors in Cache County related to the death of Endy, the Cache County Sheriff's Office service dog.
Jason Whittier,36, has been accused of leaving his K9 in his truck on a 94 degree day on July 3.

The Cache County Attorney’s Office filed one count of aggravated cruelty to an animal , a class B misdemeanor against Whittier in 1st District Court early Wednesday morning.

“This tragedy serves as a stark reminder to never leave children or animals alone inside of a car for any amount of time, as temperatures can quickly rise to a deadly level.” said Tony Baird, Chief Deputy of the Cache County Attorney Office.

An initial police report states that Deputy Whittier returned home with 6-year-old Endy after completing his shift around noon. He parked his truck on the south side of his home which had direct sunlight most of the day and had limited to no shade available, according to court documents. Whittier left his home for some family activities and left Endy in his patrol truck. The high temperature for July 3 in Cache County was 94 degrees, according to the Utah Climate Center.

By 11:30 p.m. Whittier returned to his home and realized Endy was not in his outside kennel, he found the dead dog secured inside the truck, according to court records.

Upset, Whittier told his immediate supervisor about what had happened. Endy was taken to a Veterinatry Lab where the cause of his death was determined to fatal heat stroke, a police report states.

"Deputy Whittier failed to remove Endy from his patrol truck upon returning to his home after his shift. As a result, Endy was exposed to fatal temperatures of heat for several hours and died," according to court records.

Prosecutors will continue to work with investigators on the independent Northern Utah Critical Task Force to get any further facts in the case.

Cache County's K9 vehicles do come with what Sheriff Chad Jensen calls an "active duty fail safe," which will monitor the vehicle's internal temperature and adjust levels while the vehicle is running. It does not work if the vehicle is not running.

Because of this tragic loss, Cache County plans to make changes to their K9 patrol vehicles. Handlers will need to manually shut down a security system that makes sure the dog doesn't get overheated or locked inside.

"For whatever reason, if he doesn't shut down the system manually, after so many seconds, it'll automatically set off the horns and the lights and the sirens so hopefully something like this can never ever happen again," Jensen said.

Jensen said the K9 program will continue. They plan to replace Endy with another police dog to bring the program back up to two teams.

The Cache County Sheriff’s Office will hold a memorial service to honor Endy at the Sheriff’s Complex. The community is invited to attend. More details of that memorial service will be available at cachesheriff.com and on its Facebook page.
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P

Pizza

Member
Police dogs are treated like coworkers in the force, so this dude's negligence caused the death of a coworker and he's probably just going to get a slap on the wrist and a new dog.

Dumb.
 
P

PeakPointMatrix

Member
Aaronrules380 said:
Watch as this draws more outrage than them shooting black people
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Not only that, the punishment is probably harsher than the average slaughter of an innocent black civilian AND has already made more of an impact resulting in direct changes to their equipment/vehicles to prevent this from happening again. When was the last time shooting a black man ushered change in any police force besides the assailant getting a vacation?
 
F

Finn of Ooo

Member
While this is obviously something he should see punishment for, it does sound like a mistake. There was a Radiolab or This American Life story about parents who forgot their children are in the car and the same thing happens. It's incredibly upsetting but from the article it seems like he didn't leave him in there intentionally. I don't know man, he should face some repercussions but from the quote where he states he only realized what happened when he saw that Endy wasn't in his kennel... sounds like he made a mistake.
 
L

Linkura

Member
Finn of Ooo said:
While this is obviously something he should see punishment for, it does sound like a mistake. There was a Radiolab or This American Life story about parents who forgot their children are in the car and the same thing happens. It's incredibly upsetting but from the article it seems like he didn't leave him in there intentionally. I don't know man, he should face some repercussions but from the quote where he states he only realized what happened when he saw that Endy wasn't in his kennel... sounds like he made a mistake.
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Yeah, which is another reason I'm surprised they've filed charges.
 
E

ElectricBlanketFire

Member
Finn of Ooo said:
While this is obviously something he should see punishment for, it does sound like a mistake. There was a Radiolab or This American Life story about parents who forgot their children are in the car and the same thing happens. It's incredibly upsetting but from the article it seems like he didn't leave him in there intentionally. I don't know man, he should face some repercussions but from the quote where he states he only realized what happened when he saw that Endy wasn't in his kennel... sounds like he made a mistake.
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I've only read one article that interviewed parents who left there kids in a car accidentally that died.

It's all I thought about for way too long.
 
R

RumblingRosco

Member
Psychoward said:
how can you be that fucking dumb
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This is the kind of attitude that leads to these accidents, if you ask me. Everyone acts like it's such a dumb mistake that they could never make themselves... and here ya go, another case of someone making the mistake.

The answer to "how can you be that fucking dumb" is "humans are forgetful and make mistakes, and it can happen to any of us even if you are extremely careful 99% of the time."

The point being, yeah, the guy deserves to be punished and shouldn't be in charge of a K9 any longer, but distancing yourselves from a human action is just setting yourself up to make the same mistake.
 
C

CliqWriter

Member
As much as I love to shit on the cops when given a chance. These guys usually spend much more time with their dogs than normal owners and this was probably an honest mistake. A deadly one, but hopefully fully unintended. Still needs to be punished.


On the other hand I pick up like 8 dog poops a day at my apartment dog park so there are a bunch of shit owners. He could be one. Lol
 
A

Ashhong

Member
Poor dog. Assuming everything he says is true, the officer must feel absolutely horrible right now. I didn't want to click on the article..is there a picture of the dog? It's too early to cry
 
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Finn of Ooo

Member
ElectricBlanketFire said:
I've only read one article that interviewed parents who left there kids in a car accidentally that died.

It's all I thought about for way too long.
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Same, I can't comprehend how you would feel after making that kind of mistake. With your world crumbling around you, whats the point of taking punitive measures. When your children are involved at least.
 
S

sturgboski

Member
Oh I'm so sorry he is upset. Perhaps he should be fired and be brought up on animal cruelty charges for being a negligent asshole.
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Psychoward said:
how can you be that fucking dumb
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Here we go again. It happens with horrifying frequency - and yes with kids too. It's a function (or rather malfunction) of how the brain works. I understand why people get mad at the pet owners or parents. I do. But it's empathy time whether you like it or not.


1. If he left it there on purpose thinking it would be OK he's an idiot and should be charged.
2. If he genuinely forgot, there but for the grace of god go we.


It's horrifying, but every single person who says, "I WOULD NEVER DO THAT" is, albeit with fine intentions, a liar.


I get upset just thinking about it. If it happened to me, I honestly don't know what I would do to myself. Anyway when I was a new parent, I basically would wake myself up at night having nightmares about that. It's the same brain malfunction that causes you to leave your coffee on the roof of the car.
 
N

Netherscourge

Banned
So, will the police officer be FIRED and charged with animal cruelty?

Fuck empathy. The dog died due to stupid neglect on the part of it's handler.
 
F

Forerunner

Member
GulAtiCa said:
Horrible. :(

Also read a story of a dog dying from hike in San Diego yesterday as well. Too hot for that.
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dog_dies_on_cowles_mountain_1500071080578_62855844_ver1.0_640_480.jpg


Poor dog died of heat exhaustion.
 
R

RMI

Banned
SirMossyBloke said:
5 years in jail and a swift spanking then. That'll teach him for deliberately killing a dog eh?
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I don't know what the correct punishment is, and it's not for me to hand out, but it certainly has to be more than "well you feel bad so I guess that's enough."
 
C

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
wonder if he'll be charged with something like negligence or manslaughter or whatever equivalent for a dog. If you or me as the public hit that dog we would be charged with assaulting an officer.

Poor dog

blame space said:
nothing pisses me off more than people who leave dogs in cars. I hope he does time.
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i feel like this needs some qualifiers like not leaving your dog in a hot car, not leaving them in there for a ridiculous amount of time. But i used to take my dog if i was just running inside a store real quick and the weather was nice i would leave the windows open, she loves it.
 
C

Cuburt

Member
PeakPointMatrix said:
Not only that, the punishment is probably harsher than the average slaughter of an innocent black civilian AND has already made more of an impact resulting in direct changes to their equipment/vehicles to prevent this from happening again. When was the last time shooting a black man ushered change in any police force besides the assailant getting a vacation?
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That was the most shocking part of the story to me.

Apparently the bureaucracy can move fast if it wants.
 
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