English Bulldogs Die In Hot Car

[CoraNewf]

Well then, the blame lies with both the US Secret Service and the local Police Department.... shame shame shame... I can feel my blood pressure rising.

In regards to the Secret Service being involved... my guess is that since the crime scene had something to do with counterfeiting... that is under the jurisdiction of the US Treasury... and the Secret Service is also apart of the Treasury Dept.

Some days... an eye for an eye really makes sense....

Annie

[CoraNewf]

OMG... I just clicked on the link and one of the headlines on is "Health Department issues Hot Weather warning!!!!!:

[shipugtzus]

There is an article pertaining to this on dog.com under dog info news headlines,listed as...Two dogs die in car after owner arrest
It is listed on the second page at http://www.dog.com. It says that Mangan (the owner) has a news conference scheduled with the Springfield Human Society after his hearing on Monday....Sandy

I am glad to see you are all upset as I am. I started to think that maybe I was getting carried away. I personally plan on e-mailing the news station and the humane society in MO to discuss this. I am grateful to the gentelman who wrote a story about this for the Springfield Leader-News since he responded with a phone number for me. I will pass along any info I get to you so you can respond too.

Rest in Peace Bonnie and Max. Those two, sadly without pictures, will be included on the Rainbow Bridge Page that I am working on.

[Cinder & Smoke]

More details on the deaths of Bonnie and Max...

Here's another link to possibly the first and earliest newspaper story:
http://www.springfieldnews-leader.co...ddogs0712.html

This account give the time-line of the arrest and the actions
of the Secret Service, the Local Police, local animal control
and humane officials, and the efforts of the local citizens to help.
It appears that many individuals understood there WAS a problem
with the dogs, but local policies - or a lack of policy - was
to blame for the lack of action before it was too late.

This article is a sad commentary on our Federal, State,
and Local Government.

Bureaucracy at it's best? or Worst.

/s/ Phred

Phred, you are a firefighter right? I thought I read that before.... If you are, then you must see things like this. Children, dogs locked in cars? What do you do? Maybe you can give us some insight, if you see this kind of thing.

I just can't imagine why this had to happen. With that many people involved this should never have ended up the way that it did. I understand that federal officials and police officers have a job to do and that is first and foremost and that no one was allowed near the car, but how many people would it have taken to get the dogs out and guard the suspect? I'm not directing these questions at you Phred... I am just still amazed that this happened.

[shipugtzus]

well Doggiemom,I did see pictures of Bonnie and Max on channel 10 news and they were beautiful,happy looking,well cared for dogs.

The Southwest Mo Human Society is..417-823-2526...The Springfield Newsleader is..417-836-1199

And no you are NOT going overboard.This was totally a case of..THEY JUST DIDN'T CARE.

Originally posted by Sandy Lawson:
<STRONG>well Doggiemom,I did see pictures of Bonnie and Max on channel 10 news and they were beautiful,happy looking,well cared for dogs.

The Southwest Mo Human Society is..417-823-2526...The Springfield Newsleader is..417-836-1199

And no you are NOT going overboard.This was totally a case of..THEY JUST DIDN'T CARE.</STRONG>

Thank you Sandy! Boy did you start a hot topic here. Do you know if there are pics on any of the websites? I want to include them on the Rainbow Bridge page. Maybe I will call the news station up there and have them e-mail the pics... I wonder if they would do that? Here's hoping!!

[shipugtzus]

If there are any pics on the web,I am not aware of them.I do know that KOLR 10 has some they used on TV for the story/As to where they would release them or not I don't know.I am sure they would if they can.Sandy

[Cinder & Smoke]

Angel ~ To answer your question about how a Firefighter might react
to this situation:

I'm a former Chief, now an Assistant Chief, with a 30 person, all Volunteer,
semi-rural Fire Department. We answer to a Township Board of Trustees,
but have the luxury of never beig second guessed or told HOW
to run a call by those folks. This gives us a LOT of leeway to size up
an incident and decide to to what WE, the Firefighters on the call,
think is the right and proper thing to do. In contrast, larger city
Volunteer Departments, and most Career or Paid Departments, have
to follow usually very formal, written policies and "Standard
Operating Procedures" that sometimes just don't cover everything
we run into in the "real world" of emergency service. So what do you
do when something happens that requires a action that isn't covered
by your Departmental SOP's? It all depends on what kind of an organization
that you belong to; and how the "administration" might react
to your doing something that isn't covered by a formal policy or SOP.

Given a "routine" kid or critter locked in a car situation ~ we first
determine if the car is running and if the air or heater is operating
and will maintain a confortable temperature. If there's no risk to
the occupant, we'll stand by for a couple of hours if need be to
monitor the situation and wait for another key to arrive or a locksmith.
If it's too hot, cold, or there's the possibility of a carbon
monoxide problem, we'll break a small window and do the rescue.

A "nasty attitude" dog, like Springfield had, is a different situation.
You NEED an experienced dog handler and a place to put the critters.
With no handler and no container, one of the "officials" had to make a
tough decision. I think I would have asked the arrestee if his AC worked?
If yes; allow him to enter the car, start her up and turn on the air =
problem solved for a while. If no AC, well; Houston, we got a problem!
Turn to the civilians and ask if anybody will help. Determine from the
arrestee if the dogs will be cooperative with a stranger and allow him
to assist with the turn-over. Remember the guy is a long term escapee
and wanted felon - the cops aren't going to let him drive the dogs home!

As a last resort, call the Fire Guys and ask them to stand by and
hose the dogs down enough to keep them cool
until a back-up plan is
created by a supervisor. Having all the concerned "officials"
stand around and watch the dogs pass out with
heat stroke was NOT a
very sound plan. Shame on the whole bunch! /s/ Phred, a Fire Guy

[shipugtzus]

Thanks to cinder and smoke for your thoughts of what you would have done, which I would have had no problem with any of those approaches.But these people never even bothered to call the human society,let alone the fire dept or anyone else.Neighbors tried to help and were refused.All they would have had to done is call the human society.They said on TV that they would have gone and taken the dogs,but were never called,so therefore knew nothing about it till it was to late. Even though they said the dogs appeared to be vicious,none of the onlooking neighbors saw any sign of this.I realize what you are saying and you are right,but passing the buck in my opinion does not make it ok.They basically just turned their back on these dogs.All they seemed to be able to say was its not our problem.Just as you mentioned,there are a lot of ways the death of Bonnie and Max could have been avoided,and that is what I am so upset about.There was no reason whatsoever for these dogs to have had to die.As this is my hometown I know that there were many non officials who tried and wanted to help with the owners consent,and the officials would not let them.Now they could not have been held responsible in any way if a neighbor had taken the dogs with the owners permission.But they still WOULD NOT LET THEM.The Human Society said they would have taken full responsibility,but they did't bother to call them.I don't feel this had anything to do with what they were or weren't allowed to do.When you don't even bother to make a five minute phone call to the Human society,you just plain don't care.If they had been more caring like you and everyone else on here,somehow,someway Bonnie and Max would still be alive today.
I want to thank everyone on here for the overwhelming response to this topic.At least I know I am not alone in how I feel about this and I appreciate all of you for your thoughts and opinions...Sandy

[Sudilar]

Every time I think about this, I want to cry. Life is so unfair.
Sue