Photo Courtesy Dade Co. Sheriff’s Dept
A Dade County, GA K9 officer named ‘Georgia’ died while she was inside a vehicle on Sunday.
Officials with the department say the patrol vehicle’s air conditioning compressor failed, which led to the unfortunate loss of the K9’s life.
A post on Facebook says not only that, a heat alarm in the vehicle’s self-contained kennel failed to go off.
That, along with an estimated heat index of 100-102 outside, and the fact that Georgia was left inside the vehicle “for what we considered to be an unacceptable amount of time,” led to her death, said the Dade County Sheriff’s Office on their Facebook page Tuesday.
Photo Courtesy Dade Co. Sheriff’s Dept
The post says that Georgia’s handled has been fired. It’s not clear at this time how long the dog was in the car before she died.
In addition to sharing their grief online, the department says it has committed to a change in procedure going forward to prevent this from ever happening again.
The post says:
“Going forward, any K-9 vehicle we have will be taken out of service if ANY of the essential K-9 equipment isn’t in 100% working order. We are also going to overhaul our K-9 handler policy, and K-9’s WILL NOT be left in vehicles for extended periods of time during summer.
At the direction of Sheriff Cross, K-9 Georgia’s handler is no longer an employee of Dade County Sheriff’s Office, and this entire incident will be turned over to the Dade County District Attorney’s Office to determine if prosecution is warranted in this particular case.”
The post concludes with…
“Our hearts are aching at the loss of K-9 Georgia. Many of you know that she was donated to us by a local family, at no cost to the sheriff’s office. She was an amazing bloodhound who was sweet, goofy, and had all the potential to be the “best of the best”. She will be deeply missed by everyone at our office, and by anyone who had the pleasure to meet her.”
