Police Dog Was Left In Hot Car For Six Hours And Died From The Heat
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 4 months ago
Via WiscoDave, this sad news.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A police dog handler has been suspended without pay for five days but won’t face criminal charges after his dog was left in a police vehicle for more than six hours and died from the South Carolina heat, Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook said.
Master Police Officer David Hurt had the air conditioning on, but for some unexplained reason turned off a heat alarm and left his windows open July 26. Hurt failed to even come to his vehicle to let the Labrador retriever mix named “Turbo” use the bathroom — behavior that shocked seasoned dog handlers, Holbrook said.
“He didn’t give any logical reason,” Holbrook said at a news conference.
The chief also presented the findings of the internal investigation to prosecutors, who decided that Hurt used terrible judgment but wasn’t criminally negligent and no charges should be filed.
“It was a mistake of the heart he will have to deal with the rest of his life,” said Holbrook, who added he didn’t fire Hurt because he immediately took responsibility for his grave error.
Hurt also will be suspended from the bomb squad and can never handle a police dog again.
Turbo was the first dog given to Hurt, who was selected to be a handler and went through hundreds of hours of training. The 22-month-old explosive-sniffing dog had been with Hurt for seven months.
Hurt was at a high school July 26, getting active shooter training, and didn’t take the dog inside because of the loud noises and crowd, Holbrook said.
Other handlers also left dogs inside vehicles because they could be needed for a call on a moment’s notice but they all checked on their animals frequently, the chief said.
When Hurt returned to his vehicle at the end of the day, Turbo had white foam around his mouth and was listless. Hurt immediately recognized the dog was suffering from heat stress and took it to a veterinarian. The dog was put to sleep two days later after suffering organ failure, Holbrook said.
“It was a mistake of the heart he will have to deal with the rest of his life,” said Holbrook. Oh sod off, you bastard.
The most interesting thing we learn from the report isn’t that officer Hurt is a sociopath, or that Holbrook is corrupt, but this tidbit that Holbrook thought might be exonerating.
Other handlers also left dogs inside vehicles because they could be needed for a call on a moment’s notice …
Officers who used that as an excuse are liars, plain and simple. It’s no more time to grab your dog and head to the car than it is to run there yourself. Anyone who knows and loves dogs knows you cannot leave dogs in heat like that. They have no way of discharging heat except to pant – that’s how they sweat, dumbass. They aren’t designed like you and me.
So your other officers there that day are sociopaths as well. Thanks for the warning.
Also via WiscoDave, let’s do a little compare and contrast.
A Nebraska woman was arrested, charged with animal cruelty, and sentenced to a year in prison after leaving two dogs to die in a hot car.
Ashley Alberts-Roach, 38, of Bellevue, Nebraska was arrested and charged with two felony counts of animal cruelty after she left her boyfriend’s two dogs – Paco, a 4-year-old Pit Bull/Lab mix, and Rosie, a 3-year-old Pit Bull mix locked inside her vehicle for 4 hours in August of 2016.
Alberts-Roach put the dogs inside her car around 10 a.m. on Aug. 5, 2016, because she didn’t want them in her house, prosecutor Gage Cobb said. Her 11-year-old daughter later told her the dogs were in distress, but Alberts-Roach left them there.
Feel free to weigh in with comments and let us know what these two reports tell us.
On August 24, 2018 at 12:11 am, BRVTVS said:
This topic reminds me of a few other cases that also seem pertinent.
Cops release a dog to attack a homeless man. Homeless man defends himself. Cops give extra-judicial execution. The bootlicker comments to this story show how far our population has slid.
https://triblive.com/news/adminpage/9895073-74/story
Man who killed a police dog gets 44 years in prison.
https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/man-who-killed-pittsburgh-police-dog-be-sentenced/46088200
On August 24, 2018 at 4:32 am, WiscoDave said:
Shiny badges have special privileges. They are different from, and better than, the rest of us.
On August 24, 2018 at 6:02 am, Stones said:
The officer should be charged just as anyone else had done it. If he had a negligent discharge, amd killed another cop, would he be charged in some fashion? I think so.
In my former home State of NJ, Police Dogs were considered sworn officers. If I killed a police dog, it would be treated as if I killed an officer. I hope the same is not true in my new State of North Carolina.
On August 24, 2018 at 6:38 am, JJ said:
“Master Police Officer” title says a lot about the attitude of the department.
Citizens and other dogs are merely subjects to their whims.
Master Gestapo Hurt needs a punch in the face. Or three.
On August 24, 2018 at 8:00 am, ragman said:
They don’t even try to hide the double standards that exist in the country. In fact, our “elites “ remind us of the inequities every chance they get.
On August 24, 2018 at 9:37 am, Gryphon said:
No Sympathy here- those Dogs are Trained to be psychopathic (like their Handlers). The fact that the City won’t even make the thugpig Pay for the Dog is just another double-standard; if that Dog had been Accidentally Hit by a Car, damn for Sure the ‘citizen’ would have to Pay for it.
On August 24, 2018 at 10:08 am, Furminator said:
This was a Lab, a drug dog, not a Shepard or Dobie. A pschopathic lab might lick you to death but it was no biter. Same thing happened in our town four years ago, dipsh*t left his ‘partner’ in the car for six hours and baked her to death. He got a demonstration in front of the PD, a ton of bad press, and 6 months of probation. She got a statue and nobody felt better. A friend of mine in the State legislature subsequently tried to get a bill through to criminalize this criminal professional negligence and it was overwhelmingly voted down. ‘Nuff said.
On August 24, 2018 at 10:24 am, I R A Darth Aggie said:
When tell my dog that it’s time to go take a walk in the neighborhood, he’s at the door before I’ve had the chance to get my shoes on. The only time I might get there before him is in the morning, but he usually can judge how quickly I’m moving and so he knows he has time to stretch and wake up.
On August 24, 2018 at 10:55 am, Mark Matis said:
There is a solution to this. And it is far more than just “…a punch in the face. Or three.…” Because after one does that to an Only One, they will do FAR more to you.
On August 24, 2018 at 11:10 am, Longbow said:
Will the Dog’s handler be charged with murder of a police officer?
On August 24, 2018 at 2:52 pm, JJ said:
>On August 24, 2018 at 6:38 am, JJ said:
“Master Police Officer” title says a lot about the attitude of the department.
Citizens and other dogs are merely subjects to their whims.
Master Gestapo Hurt needs a punch in the face. Or three.
Another JJ I see, but one who posts stuff that would be considered personal threats…
On August 24, 2018 at 3:58 pm, Pat Hines said:
First, in my opinion, cops should be prohibited the use of dogs with the possible exception of cadaver dogs. All should know that most, if not all, “drug dogs” are trained to alert on command which gives the cops probable cause to search your car, house, or anyplace else.
I don’t know the law in South Carolina, however, many states have laws that if I shoot a police dog, for any reason, I’m charged with killing a police officer with just a few exceptions. If that’s the case in South Carolina, the cop MUST be charge under that law.
On August 24, 2018 at 11:34 pm, Michael (another one) said:
The same kind of thing happened here in Utah. And, not much was done to the officer in question.
https://www.standard.net/opinion/our-view/what-happened-to-a-n-utah-police-dog-is-of/article_6febab6b-aaaa-5a14-bb46-045213deddab.html
https://www.standard.net/police-fire/courts/sheriff-s-deputy-who-left-k–in-hot-car/article_4c123cf3-6ead-5c50-8024-b5bfba52ce81.html
It may be worth noting that being “fired” without having the officer’s POST certification revoked simply means he goes and works for a different agency.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
On August 25, 2018 at 8:18 am, Ned said:
So a police officer can neglect a police dog to death without any legal ramifications other than getting an extra week vacation.
It would actually be more newsworthy if someone could find an incidence of an LEO being punished for wrongfully killing a person or a dog.
On August 25, 2018 at 10:23 am, Stealth Spaniel said:
@Gryphon: You are an asshole. Dogs do what they are TRAINED to do. If you teach a dog to bite on command-it does. Real simple reasoning.
So this Master Commander gets a free pass on torturing an animal to death. Another reason the Carolinas have slid so far down the Liberal Hole. They are full of easterners who screwed up New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusettes, et al-and now need fresh territory to plunder. Like Virginia, another civil war seige.
I do NOT support any dogs in “police” work. These animals are loyal, work very hard at pleasing everyone, and they looked at completely expendable. You do not even have to like dogs to become a dog handler. Rescue dogs, and many cadaver dogs are owned by volunteers-who actually LIKE their dogs and want them around.
This is another reason to get rid of EVERY GD POLICE DEPARTMENT, and only have sheriff departments. The county sheriff is elected, not a political appointee.
On August 25, 2018 at 3:56 pm, Gryphon said:
Stealth Spaniel – (not) sorry, I have No More Sympathy for Dogs the pigs use to Oppress the People with than I do the pigs’ Families. So it was a “Drug Dog, not a Biter”? I call B.S. ANY Dog the pigs used can and will be Set On a Citizen who is Disobedient in any way. The ‘drug dogs’ are Trained to Bark on ‘hidden’ Commands, becoming the “Probable Cause” for a non-constitutional search.
The Fact that the .gov has ‘Laws’ that make Dogs equal to the pigs means the .gov forfeits and claim to Sympathy that “it was just a poor Animal”.
No, I don’t Hate Animals, I have several.
On August 26, 2018 at 8:09 am, Blake said:
I watched an officer “trainer” work a dog at a gun range several months ago. I overheard him talk about how he was the “top trainer” for the police department, yada yada yada.
As I watched him work the dog, closer to a puppy than an adult dog, his working the animal seemed to border on cruelty rather than actual training. Meanwhile, the pooch looked up at his trainer with those adoring eyes dogs reserve for that person they’ve attached themselves to…..
Anyway it was a warm day out, and after the officer was done working the pooch, the officer put the dog back inside the black police car, no water, no A/C and the sun was shining brightly.
Top trainer my ass.