3 dogs die from heat, locked in abandoned SUV

Birmingham police looking for dogs' owner

Birmingham police looking for dogs' owner

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Birmingham police looking for dogs' owner

Birmingham police are investigating a tragic case involving the death of three dogs. It happened Tuesday night when customers noticed the dogs locked in an abandoned SUV at a gas station. By the time authorities broke the window to get the dogs, one had already died.

They rushed the other two dogs to an emergency vet clinic in Hoover, and as hard as they tried, they just couldn't save them. The director at the Greater Birmingham Humane Society says leaving animals in an abandoned vehicle this time of year should be considered torture.

It was a rough night for the folks at GBHS. They jumped into action when they got the report of three dogs left in an SUV at the Citgo gas station on Bush Boulevard. All died from heat stroke.

“Maybe they thought because it was evening, it was cooler. That's not the case. It only takes just a few minutes. What happens oftentimes is they start to cramp just like if you get overheated, their blood starts to clot. Their brain function, the panting, they foam at the mouth. It's a terrible death,” Allison Black-Cornelius with the Greater Birmingham Humane Society said.

Now, police are looking for information about who might have abandoned the SUV and the pups. When they're located, they could face serious charges.

“If you lock your dogs in a car in 100-degree weather, that's a torturous death, and that can be intentional aggravated animal cruelty. And we have seen some district attorneys do felonies,” Black-Cornelius said.

The staff and volunteers at GBHS take it pretty hard when they're unable to save an animal that shouldn’t have needed saving, especially after the herculean effort from police and Steel City veterinarians.

“We've only got so much money. I mean, our vet bill from last night, Steel City, is probably going to be thousands of dollars. And we, and we still didn't win,” Black-Cornelius said.The clerk at the Citgo gas station said the woman who arrived in that SUV called Birmingham police, and when they responded, she told them someone was chasing her with a shotgun. The clerk says they looked at the surveillance video that only showed her driving up, so they left. The clerk says the SUV never left, and it was about an hour later when a customer saw the pups in the vehicle, and they called the police again.The GBHS is offering a $10,000 reward in this case.

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