A dog is dead because it was left inside a vehicle at Happy Tails Happy Dog, a Denver dog daycare business. Denver Animal Protection cited owner Ted Gualtier for animal cruelty on August 26, and the case is now headed to Denver County Court as a criminal summons.

Pet owners trust daycare businesses to keep their animals safe for the hours they're away from home. That trust was broken. The Denver Department of Public Health and Environment (DPHE) reminded the public that "animals should never be left alone in a car for any period of time," noting that temperatures inside a vehicle can rise nearly 20 degrees in just ten minutes — enough to cause heat exhaustion or heat stroke. This is a well-known danger in the pet care industry, which makes what happened even harder to accept.

Gualtier's attorney says his client is "devastated" and is reviewing the business's operations. A review after the fact does not undo what happened, and it should not be the end of the story. This case needs to move through Denver County Court with the seriousness a life lost to negligence deserves — full accountability, not a quiet resolution.

We're asking the Denver District Attorney's Office to pursue this case fully and ensure the citation results in real consequences. Families who trust daycare businesses with their pets deserve to know that negligence resulting in an animal's death will not be treated lightly.

Sign the petition to demand full accountability for this dog's death — before another family trusts a daycare that doesn't deserve it.