Cruelty to Animal Charge for Elderly Couple After Leaving Dog in Car

Last week I wrote about the nutty excessiveness of the Albuquerque Animal Ordinance called HEART. Let me say I am completely against animal cruelty from the get-go, what bothers me about HEART is excessive government intrusion over things like how many SQFT a person should have for each dog, banning plastic bowls, and other absurd government controls like that.

A recent case in Albuquerque highlights the problem. A man and his wife were out shopping and had their dog with them in the car. The woman went in to the store while the man stayed behind with the dog. From what I understood he had the air conditioning on (the engine was running) and the dog was drinking water.

The dog ran out of water and so the man cracked open the windows, shut the car off and ran into the store to get some water. A passer-by, thinking she was seeing a dog left to bake inside a car, called police saying the dog was in distress and the windows were slightly cracked. The cops showed up and arrested the couple. While the man was sitting handcuffed in the car, he had a heart attack and had to be taken to the hospital.

From here the story gets out of control, with a police officer feeling she was under "immediate threat" by the old couple, and all sorts of charges being bantered about. Today most of the charges were dropped. And, although the couple was allowed to take the dog home, a charge of animal cruelty will go to trial.

To read more about this crazy story, click here.