Dog dies after being left in car "as hot as an Aga"
Tuesday, 10 November 2009 13:02
A dog left in a car by a married man as he visited his mistress died from overheating after the vehicle was parked in direct sunlight, a court had heard.
James MacDonald was fined £574 and banned from keeping pets for a year after admitting locking his Rottweiler in his BMW last August.
The pet died after an agonising two hours in the heat during which time MacDonald, visited his girlfriend at a bed and breakfast guesthouse in Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire.
The 42-year-old had taken the dog on the trip from his home in Whitton, Middlesex.
Prosecuting Paddy Roche told the court at Banbury, Oxon how the landlady of the B&B noticed the "distressed" female dog panting heavily in the back of the car and contacted the RSPCA.
He said: "The parking space was in the sun and it was a hot afternoon. The landlady went past the car and realised the dog was a Rottweiler and it was in distress.
"It was panting badly with long drawn out pants. Only one of the rear windows was open and it was open by two inches."
The RSPCA alerted the police who smashed a window to access the vehicle which they described as hot "like an Aga oven".
Four hours after the dog's body was found it had a temperature of 43C – five degrees above normal.
MacDonald told police he "loved the dog so much" and "wished he could turn the clock back".
He admitted a charge of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.
Sentencing MacDonald magistrate Eileen Bussell told him: "While we accept it was not a deliberate act, you acted in complete negligence."
By: Metro.co.uk