A dog kennel owner is facing heat from pet owners after 17 dogs died Friday night due to extreme temperatures.
According to The Raw Story News, Maricopa County sheriff spokesman, Chris Hegstrom, reported that the kennel owner was not home at the time of the incident. He was in Florida on vacation and left the dogs in the care of family members. One of the dogs reportedly chewed the wire to the air-condition unit Friday night, causing the room to heat to 80 degrees. The next morning many of the dogs were found dead out of the 28 total dogs that were in the home.
The dead dogs were then piled into a shed, Hegstrom stated. Todd Hughes, owner of the kennel, contacted owners of the pets Saturday morning. However, instead of telling them that their dogs had died, Hughes told several of the owners that all of the dogs had tragically escaped, USA Today noted.
Doug Hart was one of the victims affected by this tragedy. He was searching for his sisters dog for two hours, when he later was notified that the dogs were dead.
There have been no charges filed against Hughes at this time. However, Hegstorm will be performing a follow up investigation in the near future. Owners are also performing tests on their deceased pets to determine if the heat was indeed the true cause of death.