MANOR, TX (KEYE/CNN) - A bystander’s quick response saved the life of a puppy locked in a car in a parking lot where the heat index was over 100 degrees.
Video shows officers rescuing 8-month-old Annabelle from the car after a woman called police to report that the puppy was in distress.
The car was turned off and the owner was inside Walmart, shopping.
“All the windows were up on the car,” said Manor Police Chief Ryan Phipps. “The sunroof was cracked just a little bit, wide enough for them to get up and use a crowbar to hit the unlock button, open the door and get the dog out.”
With a temperature of 100 degrees outside, it only takes 15 minutes for a car to reach 140 degrees. That can be exhausting and deadly for humans. For dogs, the suffering is particularly intense, said Animal Protection Supervisor Dave Ackerman.
“A dog is covered in fur, and the same way a human would perspire, a dog isn’t going to cool itself the same way a human would,” Ackerman said.
When rescuers got to the dog, she was weak, panting rapidly and searching for a spot to stay cool - common signs of a dangerous heat stroke. And it was apparent she was in bad shape even before her owner left the car.
“The dog was infested with fleas, had some lesions on it,” Phipps said of Annabelle, a Mexican wolf/German shepherd mix.
The dog’s owner, 20-year-old Chandler Bullen, told police he was shopping for about 30 minutes. Police arrested him in the parking lot for animal cruelty.
“The comment he made, that he didn’t want to waste gas, was particularly disturbing to the officers,” Phipps said.
Police say pet owners should leave their animals at home if they don’t plan on taking them with them wherever they’re going.
Animal rescuers said if Annabelle had been left in the car any longer, she could have ended up dead. For now, she’s at the Austin Animal Center until courts can work out her next living situation.
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