Police Release Footage of Dogs in Georgia Trapped in Sweltering Car

By Holly Kellum, Epoch Times
July 6, 2017 5:02 pm Last Updated: July 6, 2017 5:02 pm
A dog having a seizure after being removed from a hot car in Georgia on July 2, 2017. (Courtesy of Roswell City Police)

Police in Georgia released footage on Wednesday, July 6, of two officers rescuing a pair of dogs trapped in a hot car for over an hour.

The footage shows a police officer taking the temperature of the car in the front seat with a dog barking in the background, and the thermometer registering at 167 degrees at one point.

A thermometer reading 167 degrees that a Roswell City police officer in Georgia has just stuck into a car where two dogs had been for over an hour. (Courtesy of Roswell City Police)
A thermometer reading 167 degrees that a Roswell City police officer in Georgia has just stuck into a car where two dogs had been for over an hour. (Courtesy of Roswell City Police)

Roswell City Police said a concerned citizen called them after seeing the dogs in the car, and an officer can be heard in the video saying to the woman, “Believe me, you did the right thing.”

One of the dogs became aggressive when police tried to remove it from the car and had to be removed with a catch pole. Hearing the dog in distress, another dog that had been hiding under the front seat to avoid direct sunlight emerged, Roswell police said in the video.

Police said the first dog had a seizure from heat stroke shortly after being removed from the car.

A dog having a seizure after being removed from a hot car in Georgia on July 2, 2017. (Courtesy of Roswell City Police)
A dog having a seizure after being removed from a hot car in Georgia on July 2, 2017. (Courtesy of Roswell City Police)

Firefighters arrived to help cool the dogs off, and after sending pages to a local movie theater, the owner of the animals also showed up.

Apparently unaware what had been going on, a woman, who appeared to be the dogs’ owner asked a Roswell City firefighter what had happened to her dog.

“He was left in a hot car,” the fireman responded.

A dog rescued from a hot car in Georgia on July 2, 2017 being held by what appears to be his owner in bodycam footage released by the Roswell City Police Department. (Courtesy of Roswell City Police).
A dog rescued from a hot car in Georgia on July 2, 2017 being held by what appears to be his owner in bodycam footage released by the Roswell City Police Department. (Courtesy of Roswell City Police).

While washing one of the dogs off in a fire hydrant, the same woman said she had not been out to check on the dogs since she left them.

“I think we got here just in time to save these animals’ lives,” the policeman wearing the bodycam tells her.

The dogs were taken for emergency medical treatment and both discharged in good health.

The woman was charged with two counts of animal cruelty and the dogs were taken as evidence by the Fulton County animal control.