Hallowell police have charged a man with animal cruelty after he allegedly left his dog in a hot car on Water Street for about 30 minutes Monday afternoon.
The car was parked on the east side of the street, in the sun and with its four windows each cracked about two inches, when an officer arrived and found the dog inside, said Police Chief Eric Nason.
The officer was responding to a call from a member of the public, who said the dog — brown in color and with the look of a boxer mix — had been in the parked car for about 30 minutes.
The dog “was awake and panting,” Nason said. “The panting sets off some red flags. Certainly that would be something that is not natural behavior from an animal … It would be an indication of some type of possibility of extreme heat.”
Based on the estimated time the dog was in the car and the outside air temperature of 72 degrees, the officer determined the car’s inside temperature was about 100 degrees, Nason said.
He made that determination using a formula from the American Veterinary Medical Association, which estimates that 70-degree air outside can heat the interior of a car to 99 degrees in 20 minutes, and 104 degrees in 30 minutes.
Though the windows of the car were cracked open in this case, Nason said, “either way, it’s going to trap a fair amount of heat.”
An officer went to the car around 2 p.m. It was parked on the east side of Water Street, between the intersections of Wharf and Winthrop streets.
There was no indication in the police report that the dog required medical attention, Nason said.
Based on two factors — the temperature and the dog’s condition — the officer wrote a civil summons for the animal’s owner, 25-year-old Ryker Wells of Augusta, on a charge of animal cruelty, Nason said.
While the officer was at the scene, Wells arrived and unlocked the car, Nason said. He reportedly told the officer the dog had been in the car for about 20 minutes.
Wells didn’t immediately respond to a message sent to his Facebook account on Wednesday, and a phone number could not be found for him.
Hallowell police commonly receive complaints about animals left in parked cars on hot days, but Nason couldn’t recall a time that someone was punished for it in the last two years.
“They’re all case-by-case,” Nason said. “(They depend) on circumstances of the witness and the condition of the animal; is the car in shade; does the animal have water. All kinds of elements play into these kind of calls.”
Nason also couldn’t recall a time when a Hallowell officer has had to break into a hot car where an animal was being kept, but he said that could be an option for police when necessary.
If a citizen sees an animal in a parked car, whether in summer or winter, and thinks it’s in jeopardy, Nason said he recommends that person report it to the police or an animal control officer.
Charles Eichacker — 621-5642
Twitter: @ceichacker