Southaven investigating after police K9 dog dies in hot car

Southaven police are continuing their investigation into why safety equipment had not been installed in a squad car in which a police dog died last week after being left in the hot vehicle.

The dog, a 6-year-old Labrador mix named Gunner, died last Tuesday when his handler left him in the K9 unit cruiser while it was not running. After the unidentified officer found the dog, he was taken to a vet but could not be saved.

Police Chief Steve Pirtle said safety equipment is supposed to warn officers to prevent such an occurrence, but it had not been installed. He said he was working to determine why it had not.

"I fully anticipate disciplinary action once I have completed my inquiry," Pirtle said in a statement.

"We have never had this type of incident occur before and will do everything we can to prevent another loss like this," he said.

Pirtle said Monday he is out of town and has not yet been able to pin down what happened. He said the dog involved was a special-use dog that was only used part time for narcotics work. The department has five other full-time dogs in its K9 squad.

Pirtle said the safety equipment, if installed, would have sounded the siren and sent an alert to the dog's handler if the inside temperature reached a certain level or if the air conditioning stops working.

Department policy allows K9 officers to leave their dogs in the car as long as the engine is running and the air is turned on since it isn't always practical to have the dog out of the car.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals found last year that an increasing number of police dogs were dying in cars nationwide, often because of handlers who forgot or problems with air conditioning. PETA began tracking such incidents in 2012.