Eight dogs die in overheated truck after A/C fails

At least eight German shepherds died en route from Illinois to Indiana when the air conditioning failed in the truck they were being transported in.

The dogs expired of what local police called “heat-related injuries” in the back of a cargo van traveling through northern Indiana on Thursday night, among 18 German shepherds that were being brought from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to a Michigan City, Indiana, training facility.

The unidentified driver pulled over at a convenience store and gas station in the Indiana town of Lake Station when he heard the dogs barking, opened the truck and found the dead and suffering canines. Police in Lake Station, Indiana, about 50 miles southeast of Chicago, said the driver was not negligent and called the incident a “freak event” after the driver said he’d been stuck in two hours of traffic and had not known the air conditioning was out.

Bystanders and store employees tried to save the animals, but it was too late. Hobart Humane Society executive director Jenny Webber said she had responded to a call at 7:40 p.m. Thursday and arrived to find the dogs salivating heavily, wobbling, vomiting and convulsing — classic heat stroke symptoms.

“There were already several dogs dead on the scene, and multiple failing fast,” Webber told The Associated Press. “Their crates inside the truck were completely trashed on the inside, and the little water bowls were the size you’d give a parrot, and they were empty and torn up as if the dogs were exasperated.”

She also said some of the deaths might have been prevented.

“We had cooling vans and animal care and control vehicles ready to transport, and, because we were asking for that paperwork, it seemed to make the owner mad, and he said he would not allow us to help,” Webber told WLS-TV.

Given that the heat index in the travel area exceeded 100 degrees, she said she doubted a vet would have okayed transport under those conditions.

“He shouldn’t have been traveling at all,” Webber told AP. “So, No. 1: That is neglectful.”

With News Wire Services