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Ottawa Humane Society
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
OTTAWA, Ont. (26 June, 2007) — A Quebec man who works in Ottawa has been charged with animal cruelty after a dog was allegedly left in the back of a truck to die of heat exhaustion. This marks the second time in two days that the Ottawa Humane Society (OHS) has laid charges of animal cruelty against a local man.Yves Levergneux, of Val-des-Monts, Quebec, was charged on June 21 after investigators with the Ottawa Humane Society (OHS) found the body of an eight-month-old Mastiff-type dog inside a dumpster at an East end Ottawa locksmith shop. On June 8, the OHS received a call from a witness who reported seeing a man disposing of a dog. When investigators attended the scene, they discovered a deceased dog inside a dumpster, with blood around its mouth and paws. The body was removed and taken back to the OHS for examination.
On June 11, OHS investigators returned to the locksmith shop to interview staff. The owner of the dog was identified and questioned. Mr. Levergneux told investigators that the dog — which he described as a Dogo Argentina — had been defecating indoors and had to be removed. Mr. Levergneux admitted to placing the dog in the back of a capped pick-up truck on the afternoon of June 8, when the temperature was 30°C (37°C with the humidex). When he returned to the truck two hours later, the dog was dead, so he disposed of the body in the dumpster.
Results of an OHS post-mortem examination on the dog indicate the animal likely died of heat exhaustion — the result of being locked inside the truck for too long at extreme temperatures. The air inside a parked car can heat up within minutes on a hot day. With only hot air to breathe, a dog’s normal cooling process of panting doesn’t work and its internal body temperature can elevate to dangerous levels quite quickly. This can lead to heatstroke, brain damage, or as in this case, even death.
Mr. Levergneux has been charged with two counts of animal cruelty under the Criminal Code of Canada, for failing to provide suitable and adequate care to an animal and for causing unnecessary pain, suffering and injury to the same animal. While the circumstances in this case are especially tragic, it is not the first or only case involving an animal left in a car this season. The OHS has recently issued warning letters to several owners who have left their dogs in cars on hot days. Last week, an OHS agent had to remove a dog that had been left in a car for 45 minutes.
“The public needs to understand that it is not okay to leave an animal in a car on a hot day for any length of time,” said Tim Brown, an OSPCA inspector with the OHS. “A locked vehicle can quickly become an oven and just like an oven, if you turn it on to 400F and leave the door open a crack, the temperature inside will still be 375F. Leaving the windows rolled down on a car does nothing to reduce the temperature inside a vehicle either.”
Although, legally mandated to enforce the animal cruelty provisions of the Criminal Code of Canada, the OHS does not receive any government funding or any funding from any animal welfare group to perform this essential work.
For media enquiries, contact:
Tara Jackson, Communications Manager
(613) 725-3166 ext. 261
A word about the Ottawa Humane Society: