Jul. 7th, 2009 at 2:10 PM
Wegge said Friday that he expected to receive the reports soon from the Jefferson County sheriff's office and the county's animal control director.
The woman who left the dogs in the van, 24-year-old Mary Wild of Arnold, was the dog's handler, hired by owners to present the dogs at a dog show in Iowa last weekend. When she returned home to Arnold about 1 a.m. Monday, after driving back from the show, she left eight dogs in the van and went inside to sleep.
Seven of the eight dogs died of apparent heat stroke. The eighth dog, a Husky named Cinder, was improving on Saturday, said Dr. Laura Ivan, a veterinarian treating the animal, All eight dogs were big purebreds, some with thick coats. They included a Malamute, a Dalmatian, three Golden Retrievers and an Akita.
Authorities could consider animal neglect or animal abuse charges against Wild.
"Once we review the reports, we will decide if the facts fit either statute and will make charging decisions accordingly," Wegge said Friday.
Animal neglect is defined by Missouri law as the failure to provide adequate care. Animal abuse is "purposely, intentionally or recklessly causing injury or suffering to an animal." A first offense is a misdemanor.
Wild could not be reached for comment after several attempts by the Post-Dispatch to reach her.
Meanwhile, if Wild is convicted of either crime, she will lose privileges with the American Kennel Club. She would not be allowed to take part in AKC-sanctioned dog shows or register purebred dogs with the AKC, said Daisy Okas, assistant vice president of communications for the American Kennel Club.
If Wild were convicted of animal cruelty or neglect in Jefferson County court, an American Kennel Club committee would determine its own penalty, which could be up to a 15-year suspension or a $3,000 fine. Okas pointed out that Wild is not an AKC registered handler. That could mean that Wild either never applied or did not meet the requirements, including a certain number of years' experience.
"This is someone who had a lapse in judgment, there's no excuse for what happened. It could be inexperience," Okas said. "Before any action is taken, we're certainly looking to know more about what happened."
The kennel club depends on local authorities to investigate the case, Okas said. Since the incident did not take place on dog-show grounds, the club's jurisdiction is rather limited, Okas said.
Okas could recall only one similar circumstance where a dog died in a hot vehicle at an AKC-sanctioned event and that case involved a generator that failed on a motor home. "That's the only similar incident that happened at a dog show," she said.
It is common practice for people traveling to and from dog shows to stack the kennels in vans or motor homes. But at the shows, they bring the dogs outside in pens or keep the vans running to keep the dogs cool.
"It's a little bit of peer pressure on the dog-show scene to make sure no dogs are left," Okas said. "People are very diligent about it."
On the rare occasion when someone has left a dog in a hot car on show grounds, people will alert the staff and put out an announcement over the intercom, she said.
But Monday's incident happened on private property, near the driveway of the home on Kroeck Drive where Wild lives in Arnold.
Dr. Laura Ivan, a House Springs veterinarian who treated the dogs, explained earlier this week that the seven dogs in Wild's care apparently died of heat stroke. It would have been a terrible death with seizures and the dogs fighting for breath, evident by the toppled water dishes in the cages and other clues the veterinarian saw on the dogs' bodies, she said.
"It can get to be 120 degrees inside a van," Ivan said. "With the humidity, it’s certainly a suffocating effect. Dogs aren’t able to sweat. They pant, but not enough to release the heat in the brain."
Their body temperature could have exceeded 108 degrees.
"It only takes five minutes for heat stroke to happen," Ivan said. "If the brain heats up to about 108 degrees, you only have a few minutes to lower the temperature and restore oxygen to the brain. The blood, essentially, is boiling."
Wild told investigators that the garage was too hot to leave the dogs, so she left them in their kennels in the van and parked the van next to the driveway under a tree. Wild told police she left the van's door and windows open and had six fans operating to keep the dogs cool. She told investigators she checked on them at 4 a.m., and they were fine. Then, about 6:30 a.m., she checked on them again and found five of the eight to be unresponsive.
After trying to revive them on her own, Wild drove the dogs in the van to Ivan's veterinary clinic in House Spring. Wild's mother is in the dog-show business as well and has been a client of Ivan's clinic for about 15 years.
Ivan, however, told the Post-Dispatch that Wild's first contact with Ivan's office didn't come until 9:08 a.m. Wild called Ivan's cell phone at that time, then called the vet office directly at 9:20 a.m. She showed up at 9:30 a.m. at the vet clinic. Fifteen minutes later, Ivan got to the office. Rigor mortis had already set in on some of the dead dogs, Ivan said. Ivan said she has been told that rigor mortis could have set in as quickly as 30 minutes after death. (Source)
According to emails coming across the Akita Rescue lists, there's a lot more to the story that was not shared by Wild, according to Jersey's, the Akita, owner. To include Wild accusing a Jr. Handler of being involved in the dogs' deaths. Apparently it was that girl's parents who contacted the DA.
It makes absolutely NO SENSE to have 6 fans running when in the time would have taken to get those 6 fans, extension cords, etc, she could have moved the dogs inside where it would have been cooler. The fact that she LEFT the dogs in the van, suggests that she didn't even take them out for a bathroom break, which would then have made sense to take them inside.
Her career is over, that's a fact, but that brings no justice to the owners of these dogs.
mood: 
angry
angry