Unfortunately, a police dog in Missouri died this week from heat stress after being left in a patrol car that didn’t have air conditioning.
Vader, an Arnold Police Department German Shepherd, died Wednesday from being too hot, according to the police department.
He was 4 years old.
“A member of our K-9 family died in a terrible accident,” the department wrote on Facebook Thursday.
The agency in a suburb of St. Louis said that Vader’s police handler left the dog in a patrol car with the AC on, which is “necessary and common practice when the K-9 partner is not actively engaged in police work.”
Officer Tim Mayberry was named as Vader’s guardian by Arnold police chief Brian Carroll. He told USA TODAY on Friday that Vader was used in 2021.
Police K-9 died from being too hot.
It was found that the car’s air conditioning wasn’t working when Vader’s partner got back to it.
Vader was taken right away to a nearby veterinary clinic, where cops said he seemed to be getting better at first.
After that, the dog was taken to a 24-Hour center to get more care.
“Unfortunately, we learned last night that there were no further treatments available for Vader and he succumbed to his injuries,” it said.
Carroll wouldn’t say if the officer was reacting to a call at the time of the incident because the dog’s death is still being looked into.
Police: The car’s heat alarm didn’t work.
Police said that every K-9 car in the department has a system “that if the vehicle temperature rises to a certain level, calls the handler, turns on the emergency lights and siren, sounds the horn, turns on the cooling fans, and rolls down the windows.”
Police said that the heat alarm system did not go off in this case.
The department is still looking into Vader’s death.
“Please keep Vader’s handler, his family, and the members of the APD in your thoughts and prayers as we mourn the loss of our K-9 partner,” a spokeswoman said.
