A K-9 dog with the Houston Police Department died from heat exhaustion this week after having been left in a patrol vehicle in which the engine unexpectedly turned off and a secondary safety system was believed to have failed, authorities said.
Calling the death a "tragic accident," police said Aron, a 4-year-old dog that had been with the police department for a year and a half, had been left in a "running, air-conditioned patrol vehicle" Monday.
When Aron's handler returned to the vehicle, it was "discovered that the engine had shut off and Aron was in distress," police said in a statement. The dog was taken to an emergency veterinarian clinic but ultimately succumbed to heat exhaustion, authorities said.
Police said leaving a K-9 partner in a vehicle “is a necessary and common practice” when the dog is “not actively engaged in police work.”
They said the department's K-9 vehicles are equipped with a system that "notifies the handler, sounds the horn, activates cooling fans, and rolls down the car windows" if, for some reason, the vehicle shuts down. "This did not happen in this instance," it said.
The department is investigating to determine what went wrong. All vehicles transporting K-9s are also being inspected to ensure the systems are working properly, it said.
"Please keep Aron's handler and the entire K-9 team in your prayers as they mourn the loss of Aron," police said.
The National Weather Service in Houston had warned residents Monday on Twitter to "brace yourselves for a toasty afternoon," with temperatures in the 90s.
The animal rights advocacy group PETA has warned that dogs can face an increased risk of heat-related injuries, particularly given that dogs don't sweat the way humans do "and must cool themselves primarily through panting."
The Humane Society also advises people to "never leave your pets in a parked car," not even with the car running and an air conditioner on.
"On an 85-degree day, for example, the temperature inside a car with the windows opened slightly can reach 102 degrees within 10 minutes. After 30 minutes, the temperature will reach 120 degrees. Your pet may suffer irreversible organ damage or die," it warns on its website.
Aron isn’t the first K-9 to have died of heat-related injuries due to a purported safety system failure this year. Authorities in Georgia announced the death of another K-9 partner just last week.
Chase, a K-9 with the Cobb County Police Department, was found unresponsive in a patrol vehicle June 5 after having been left in the vehicle while officers attended scheduled active shooting training at a high school, the department said.
Officers had been checking on their K-9 partners on the hour for 15-minute breaks between each 45-minute training session, the department had said.
At some point after a check-in, police said, the vehicle's air-conditioning system appeared to have malfunctioned. Preliminary information suggested that other safety systems also didn’t properly activate and that the temperature in the vehicle rose quickly, the department said.
Chase was taken to a nearby emergency veterinarian clinic but couldn’t be saved, police said as they vowed to investigate the "horrible incident."
