Investigation Update

Thank you for voicing your thoughts and concerns on this case. No charges have been filed yet. The investigating officer, Jeff Williams, is out on vacation this week. This is not the first handler or owner attending an AKC event to leave dogs in their charge in unattended hot vehicles. On July 22, 2016, fourteen dogs in town for an AKC dog show at the St. Joseph County Fairgrounds died in the back of a box truck in Roseland, Indiana while their dog handler napped in her motel room. Autopsies confirmed the cause of death was heat exhaustion. Of the fourteen dogs, one was a Brittany Spaniel and thirteen were Golden Retrievers, three of which were puppies. Seven dogs died June 22, 2009, when a Kansas City handler left them in her van when she got home from an Iowa AKC dog show. Around 1 a.m. she arrived home, left the dogs in the van and went inside the house to sleep. She told police that at about 6:30 a.m., all eight dogs were in distress. She found five of the dogs breathing, but not responsive. The other three were clearly in distress, but could raise their heads. She tried reviving the dogs, by hosing them down before taking them to a veterinarian. Of the eight dogs, all purebred show dogs, including a malamute, a Dalmatian, three golden retrievers, an akita and a husky, 7 died from the heat. Only the Husky survived. Authorities believed temperatures in the van reached as high as 120 degrees. In sentencing the handler, the judge said he felt having her sit in a county jail would serve no purpose. Instead he wanted her doing her time helping out at the Jefferson County Animal Control Center as he thought she had something to offer with her expertise in caring for dogs. In a 2006 incident an AKC handler admitted prior to the show that he had a faulty generator, yet dogs were left inside the van for 6 hours. When the handler discovered the dogs, he returned to ringside and continued handling dogs! 10 dogs perished in the heat. Again, in 2011, this same handler was on his way to a show and stopped at a hospital to visit his father. He left the dogs, 28 of them, for 9 hours. The 5 dogs that died were 2 St. Bernards, 1 Newfy, and 2 Border Collies. Again, it was a faulty generator. The AKC needs to implement and enforce stringent regulations for the transport and housing of dogs attending AKC show events to ensure that no dogs are at risk to suffer this slow, agonizing and unnecessary fate.