8 police dogs die in overheated van in Indiana, raising questions of neglect

At least eight German shepherds training to be police K9 dogs are dead after the air-conditioning unit in the cargo van transporting them through northern Indiana failed.

The dogs that died were among 18 that were being driven from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago to a K9 training facility in Michigan City, Ind., police said in a release.

During the drive, the van got stuck in a two-hour traffic delay. At some point, the air-conditioning unit for the cargo hold where the dogs were being held broke down. Temperatures that day hovered around 33 C, though temperatures inside an uncooled car can soar high above that.

“Since the cargo area was separated, the driver wasn’t aware at the time that the AC unit failed which caused some of the canines to go into heat related medical distress,” police in Lake Station, Ind., wrote.

The driver pulled over at a convenience store after he heard some of the dogs barking and found several canines dead and others suffering. As he began to remove the dogs, who were in crates, from the van, store employees and passersby stepped in to help.

Someone called 911 and the local humane society was alerted to the situation.

Jennifer Webber, executive director of the Humane Society of Hobart, responded to the call at 7:40 p.m. and said some of the dogs were dead in their crates when she arrived and others were vomiting and convulsing from heat stroke.

“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 told the New York Times that four dogs died at the scene and at least four others were euthanized after being taken to an animal clinic, though police did not confirm that account.

Webber said she encountered resistance from the driver of the van when she attempted to gather facts about who authorized the dogs to be transported in the summer heat.

The driver, who owns the dogs and a police dog training business, used abusive language and refused to produce health certificates, Webber said. Such paperwork is typically signed by veterinarians in each state involved and required to move dogs across borders for commerce.

Webber said she doubted a veterinarian would have approved travel on Thursday, when heat indices exceeded 37 C.

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

According to the Lake Station Police Department, however, the incident was a “freak event.”

“This was not an act of animal cruelty or neglect but a mechanical failure of the AC unit that was being used in the cargo area,” police wrote.

Webber said Lake Station police let the owner drive away with some of the dogs before she could fully inspect the van, crates and canines.

The remaining dogs were transported to veterinary hospitals and Webber filed a notice of seizure for those dogs when they were released from medical treatment. According to a Lake Station ordinance, the humane society may confine any dog that is “ill, injured, or otherwise in need of care” or “reasonably believed to have been abused or neglected.”

But Webber claimed that Lake Station police blocked the order, directing the hospitals treating the animals to release them to the owner when they are well again. She said that in her five years working with Lake Station, that has never happened.

Chief James Richardson of the Lake Station Police Department wrote in an email on Sunday to the New York Times that the department would not issue any further statements about the situation until an investigation is completed.

— with files from The Associated Press