Des Moines police dog found dead in cruiser

AP Graphics

(AP) DES MOINES, Iowa - Authorities say the brutal heat is suspected in the death of a Des Moines police dog found dead inside a patrol vehicle.

Des Moines television KCCI reports that Harley, a Labrador retriever assigned to the narcotics team, was found Wednesday afternoon. The temperature had already reached the low 90s.

Police Sgt. Chris Scott says Harley had been working with his human partner, Officer Brian Mathis, on Wednesday. Scott says it was Mathis who found Harley dead in the vehicle.

Investigators are checking how long Harley was left inside the vehicle and whether the air conditioner was on or some windows were rolled down.

Scott says the department has "lost a fellow officer who just happened to be a dog."

[Ulgnud]

The "witch hunt" is progressing nicely. The "Armchair Admirals" of course know exactly what happened with no facts, investigation, or even seeing the scene of the incident. What say we wait until the investigation determines what happened? There are lots of possibilities. There is equipment installed in K-9 vehicles that open windows, turn on engines, and activate climate controls based on inside and outside temperatures. Perhaps this system failed. Let's wait for some facts to surface.

[teufeldritch]

Is the police officer that left the dog in the cruiser going to be charged with killing a law enforcement officer? If you or I were to kill a police dog you know damn well we would get charged with killing a police officer, I wonder is this police officer will get charged as we would?

[Jayd724]

Every day. Every single day, there is a top story about cops and their wrongs. Sick of it. They should be held to the highest standards. Any wrong doing by them, the punishment should be TENFOLD. Sick of cops doing as they please in terms legality and then only getting a reprimand or 1 week paid vacation.

[doggiemom1]

How many K-9 offiers have to die before the police understand leaving them in a hot car kills them? Seems this is happening more and more all over the country. Even if the A/C is left on, A/C units can fail to cool if the vehicle is not moving. Maybe if the handlers were taught in graphic detail, how horrible the death is for the animals, basically cooking the dog from the inside, they would think twice before leaving them in the vehicle.

[covmum48]

This happened to two police dogs in San Antonio. Dogs were left in the patrol car in the south Texas heat and died. Thing is, the police have very expensive equipment that they haven't bothered to install in the cars that monitors the temp inside the car and a/c/ automatically starts up when it gets too hot. When local news channel asked police about it they couldn't find the equipment, someone with sticky fingers has made an easy buck off the equipment, two police dogs are dead and nobody is being held responsible. Typical.

[ludvig1-2009]

Yellow labs are not so snarly. They are generally pretty friendly dogs. I hate to see a pic of a snarly dog when he was probably a good dog.

[kristencecilia]

Absolutely appalling! I would think a police officer, although be it a dog, would deserve a smarter partner. It seems like Officer Harley had more training than Officer Mathis. I sincerely hope that Mathis is charged and convicted just as any person would be for cruelty to animals. This is no time to pactice the old "he's one of our own" routine! Cruelty to animals is a felony and in addition, Officer Harley is considered a cop and the murder of cops carries a pretty stiff penalties. Again I hope that Brian Mathis is punished to the full extent of the law!

[Jaylah54200]

It does not matter if any windows were "rolled down" or not.

On a hot day the inside of a car can reach 160 degrees in minutes. Cracking the windows won't help much at all. Hard to believe? Put a thermometer in your car to check it out on a hot day. Factor in a full body fur coat and inability to sweat to cool yourself (dogs require cool air to pass over their tongues when they pant to reduce body temperature) and you'll get the picture.

There's a reason that most cities have laws against leaving dogs in cars, even with "the windows rolled down" and the local police/animal control officers have the authority to cite owners that do and -- if necessary -- break into vehicles containing animals.

The fact that this was a police officer, leaving a K-9 dog in his cruiser, makes it absolutely, positively inexcusable.

Mathis should be barred from ever working with dogs again.

[goldsummer]

I completely agree ! And we have the same laws here in Canada.

[AttyFAM]

The article says the police dog was a Labrador Retriever but the photograph shows a German Shepard!

CBS, you still have not hired an editor worth his/her salt.

[rwsmith29456]

It also says it worked in narcotics. It was probably a sniffer, not an attack dog. I guess you could make a Lab an attack dog if you tried hard enough, but you would have to overcome extreme friendliness.

[Jaylah54200]

And the photo credit says, "AP Graphics." So it was NOT the actual dog in question, but a "clip art" photo of a "police dog."