Ah, you already guessed it. If you’re the cop who’s actually responsible for the dog, it’s apparently a minor disciplinary matter. And the “have mercy, I’m an orphan now” defense actually works.
Duplin County Sheriff Blake Wallace says Dep. Kevin Williams was getting off duty August 19 when he got a call that his child was sick. Distracted, Williams left his K-9 Kela in the hot car overnight. She was found dead the next day.
“While it was a mistake, I’m sure he did not intend to do that, it is a tragic loss, you know financial loss for the county, as well as it creates a bad situation here that we’ve got to deal with,” County Manager Mike Aldridge said.
I’m near certain ‘suspension without pay’ is the first and least penalty you or I could expect to suffer under exactly the same circumstances. While they were digging the hole under the prison they planned to stuff us into.
Yep… wonder how often he left his kids in a hot car overnight?
Had a similar case in the greater Phoenix metro area. Same result, lots of hand wringing, no punishment.
Forgot his partner in the car overnight; my newish coworker forgot to come to work yesterday. The latter is irritating; the former should be something short of a hangin’ offense. We use these beasts (the dog, not the coworker) in an unequal partnership; we have a moral obligation to take good care of ’em. Jeez.
Poor dog. This makes me really sad.
There but for the grace of God…
I had an old geriatric newfie/labrador mix that was a very quiet, very sleepy dog. I swear to God he must’ve got in vitro horse traquilizers when his mom was pregnant, and he never recovered. Laziest, mostlethargic dog you’ve ever seen. I saw him run so rarely that it was kind of a big deal when he did. I put him in the back of my blazer one day, back when I was in college, ran some errands, and when i got home, I forgot he was in the car, because he’d been asleep the whole time and I couldn’t see him laying down behind the back seat.
I left him in the car for two hours before I realized what I’d done.
It was a cold day, which it would have been since I never take the dogs in the car on hot days just for that reason. He was asleep when I went to find him. He acted like nothing was the matter when I went to let him out, but I felt like a total heel.
Still do, and it’s been more than thirteen years ago now…
That dog passed away two years ago, and that’s the only thing I regretted when I buried him – I could have killed him that day, because I was a damn idiot.
Of no real import but in your title, K-9 is synonymous with “dog”. You probably mean “police dog”.
** TRIVIA MAN… AWAY!! **
The Sheriff’s Department itself needs to take some of the blame because it’s normal practice for K9 cars to be equipped with temperature alarms to prevent precisely this from happening. Since that car apparently wasn’t so equipped, I’m guessing this is one reason why the Sheriff is in such a forgiving mood. He probably just wants this incident to “go away” before folks start asking too many embarrassing questions.
A similar thing happened in Mills, Wyoming in August: hot car, six hours, dead dog. Mills cop won’t see felony charges b/c it was unintentional… I wonder if the same latitude would be afforded a citizen.
http://www.oilcitywyo.com/2014/08/22/mills-police-officer-charged-with-animal-cruelty-that-lead-to-the-death-of-a-k9-officer/