Buddy Amato, the chief humane law enforcement officer of the Monmouth County SPCA, opened an investigation Friday into the death of the Middletown family’s 6-year-old dog named Bugsy.
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| RIP poor Bugsy |
The bulldog was playing at Dogs On The Farm kennel in Atlantic Highlands when he died of an apparent heat stroke, Amato said. No charges have been filed at this point, but Amato said he’s hoping to find an amicable solution to “an unfortunate chain of events.”
“I feel very, very bad for the dog owners and I also feel bad for the people at Dogs On The Farm because obviously this wasn’t intentional,” he said.
No pets, particularly flat-face dogs like French bulldogs that have respiratory problems on a normal day, should be left in the heat for too long without shade or cold water, Amato said. Pet owners and caretakers should be mindful that a bowl of water can heat up to air temperature in 20 minutes and a dog can easily knock over a bowl.
Amato said this would be the second heat-related dog death this summer and he has written 10 tickets in the past two weeks for pets left inside vehicles plus at least another 10 for dogs left outside without water or shade.
Amato said Saturday it was still early in the investigation and he was waiting for the results of the autopsy, though he guessed the cause was heat-related.
The owners of Dogs On The Farm have been cooperative and the person supervising the dogs at the time of Bugsy’s death had been terminated, Amato said. The owners of the business could not be reached for comment Saturday.
Bugsy’s owner, Danielle Collins, said the family dropped off their French bulldog at the kennel, where he had previously stayed, on Thursday and received a call Friday that he died after he had been outside for an hour and a half in direct sunlight. Collins, 30, said they paid about $2,500 for their “perfectly healthy” dog to stay there.
The kennel owner told them they tried to hose Bugsy down inside after noticing he had signs of heat stroke, but he died shortly after, Collins said. Staff brought the bulldog to the family’s veterinary technician who, Collins said, didn’t believe Bugsy had just died because he was covered in gravel.
She said the owner was sympathetic, but the family of four, including a 10-month-old and 4-year-old, felt awful for losing Bugsy. They held a service for him in their backyard Saturday morning.
“It’s like taking your kid to a daycare,” Collins said of taking Bugsy to the kennel. “You expect them to be kept safe.”
(Asbury Park Press - July 20, 2013)
