New Zealand : Monday, 20 December 2010 (Local)
The women who found a dead dog in a Christchurch shopping mall car park has been having trouble sleeping since she discovered its body, harnessed and muzzled, in the sun.
The dog was left in the car on the hottest day Christchurch has seen this summer, with the temperature at 33.4 degrees Celsius.
The pomeranian dog was left in the sun, harnessed to a seat belt and tightly muzzled, at the top level car park of The Palms shopping centre in Shirley.
Sheryn Macdomald, who found the dead dog, said it was seriously distressing to see it restrained and frothing at the mouth.
“A terrible death for this poor wee thing- cooked slowly in at least 52 degrees Celsius not even able to ask for help,” she said.
Macdonald said she had been waking up in the night feeling upset about the incident.
“It was just awful, everyone was terribly distressed and the mall security were trying to stop people from coming by and seeing the body,” she said.
The windows of the car were down about four centimetres but Macdonald said the dog had been tightly restrained so it could not move out of the sun.
She said mall security needed to patrol car parks to ensure no other dogs faced a similar fate this summer.
Canterbury SPCA mangaer (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) Geoff Sutton said it was an avoidable and frustrating tragedy.
“The issue is bloody simple, do not ever leave a dog in the car when you go shopping,” he said.
“Every time it happens it is one too many. But the answer is simple, no ifs or buts, just don’t do it.”
Sutton did not believe malls should have to incur costs for patrolling car parks searching for trapped pets.
“It should not be down to them, this is absolutely about owners. The answer is simple owner responsibility,” he said.
The SPCA now have possession of the dog’s body and are investigating the incident but would not comment on whether the owners would be facing charges.
Sutton said a penalty for similar types of animal cruelty could be as high as a $75,000 fine or up to 3 years imprisonment.
Tracy Thompson, spokeperson from The Palm, wanted customers not to leave their pets in the car while they were in the mall.
“This incident is distressing for both customers and staffl. We ask that customers support the SPCA’s message that no one should leave their pets in the car unattended at anytime.”
Story and Foto from :www.stuff.con.nz (reported by Olivia Carville)
