Reenactment Performed to See if Heat Kills Dogs? Are You Kidding?!
Hold on to your cruelty-free hats for this one, folks. We’ve got a case of the hideously cruel and ridiculously obvious to break.
In early September, we learned about the death of Diamond, a Rottweiler who died while in the custody of a Clay County, Florida, animal control officer. The poor dog likely died from heat shock, allegedly because the animal control officer left her in the back of the seething-hot van with no air conditioning, water, or fresh air on an 85° day—after riding around with her for an hour or so and while he attended a meeting.
A necropsy came up inconclusive but suggested that the death was related to heat stress. This was not good enough for Clay County officials, evidently, and they actually decided a reenactment was necessary so they could prove that the officer wasn’t at fault. Ready for it … WHAT?!!???!!
Yeah, you can’t make this stuff up. They placed a homeless shelter dog who was “of similar size and weight” as Diamond into the exact same box, in which the heat reached more than 86 degrees, and waited—presumably to see if the dog would die. This lasted for more than one hour. I think we need one more resounding WHAT!???!!??? I mean, seriously, people, this is just completely insane—not to mention horrifically cruel. The fate of that poor dog has not been made public.
While it’s bad enough that a dog died in the county’s custody in the first place, this whole aftermath reenactment just makes me physically ill. Naturally, PETA Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch immediately sent off a letter to Clay County blasting them for their senseless decision to subject a second dog to obviously potentially fatal conditions.
If you are as outraged by Clay County’s actions as we are, please take action!
Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky
