Woman charged after dog dies in hot car in southeast Calgary

A Calgary woman has been charged after a dog died in a hot car on Canada Day, according to police.

Police said they received reports of a dog in distress inside a vehicle in the 0 to 100 block of Mount Copper Green Southeast at around 5 p.m. on July 1. Officers said they found a dog lying unresponsive inside the car.

Witnesses told officers that the dog was panting so heavily that the car was shaking, and the dog stopped responding to knocks on the window after some time, according to a Thursday news release.

Police said the windows of the vehicle were up and the doors were locked, and officers had to break the window to attempt to rescue the dog.

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The dog was identified as a female four-year-old Alaskan malamute and German shepherd mix named Lucky. Police said Lucky was left in the car for more than two hours when outside temperatures were approximately 20 C.

Police said Lucky’s owner, Kaitlyn Rose Folkins, 30, is facing animal injury-related charges under the Criminal Code and the Alberta Animal Protection Act.

Folkins is scheduled to appear in court on Friday, Aug. 2.

The Calgary Police Service said people should call 911 immediately if they see an animal alone in a vehicle on a warm or hot day.

Brad Nichols, Calgary Humane Society’s director of enforcement and vice executive director, told Global News the organization tries to get out as much information about car temperatures early in the year to try and prevent pet deaths.

“This was a lengthy amount of time. This was an intentional and reckless decision to leave the animal in the vehicle. The dog itself was a malamute and German shepherd cross … It’s just the perfect storm of what could happen in hot weather,” he said.

Nichols said police get hundreds of calls about pets locked in hot cars a year.

“It takes minutes to suffer. It can be deceiving how hot it is outside compared to how hot it is inside a vehicle because they become ovens, right? And animals, unfortunately, if left in these vehicles, they cook from the inside,” he said.

“It’s a terrible death and it’s entirely avoidable.”