8 out of 18 Animals Found Dead in Vehicle Cargo Compartment
Temperature Was 33°C, but Cargo Compartment Air Conditioner Was Broken
As unprecedented heatwaves grip various parts of the world, an incident occurred in the United States where police dogs being transported in a vehicle with a broken air conditioner died en masse.
According to CNN and others on the 30th (local time), on the afternoon of the 27th, 8 out of 18 police dogs being transported from Chicago O'Hare International Airport in central Illinois to a training facility in Michigan City, Indiana, were found dead in the vehicle's cargo compartment.
The driver transporting the police dogs stopped the vehicle at a highway rest area in Lake Station, Indiana, after driving about 100 km due to the dogs barking. When the driver opened the cargo compartment, several dogs were already dead, and the remaining dogs were exhausted, unable to breathe properly, and collapsed.
The cause of death for the dogs was attributed to the broken air conditioner. On that day, the daytime temperature in Chicago soared to 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius). The dogs, confined in a cargo compartment without air conditioning, reportedly succumbed to the heatwave.
The police determined that this incident was not a case of animal abuse. The police stated, "Since the cargo compartment was separated, the driver did not realize at the time that the air conditioning system was broken, which caused the police dogs to suffer," adding, "The barking of the dogs alerted the driver to what was happening inside the cargo compartment." The reason for the air conditioner malfunction is still unknown.
Jennifer Hofer of the Hobart Humane Society said, "The dogs showed signs of heatstroke," describing symptoms such as "drooling, staggering, vomiting, and seizures." She criticized, "This animal transport should not have been done in the first place," calling it "the most important negligence."
Meanwhile, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), June this year was recorded as the hottest June in 174 years of weather observation, and the heatwave is expected to continue this month, making July the hottest month in history.
In particular, more than half of the U.S. population, 170 million people, are under the influence of "heat advisories" or "heat warnings." The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued "heat advisories" and "heat warnings" in some areas, warning that "dangerous situations with heat indices rising above 46 degrees Celsius may occur."
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