At approximately 1 p.m. on Thursday, June 8, 2017, Idaho Falls Animal Services responded to a residence in the 800 block of Masters Drive for a report of a dog that was left in a parked vehicle unattended. 

Upon arrival, a female pit bull was discovered deceased in the vehicle from reported heat stroke. Vehicle temperatures taken by Animal Services ranged from 105 to 156 degrees.  It is unknown how long the dog was in the vehicle.

The dog’s owner, 26-year-old Latasha Rae Calvert Hood, was cited for animal cruelty.

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, every year, hundreds of pets die in vehicles due to heat exhaustion because they are left in parked vehicles.  Temperatures in your vehicle can rise almost 20 degrees in only 10 minutes. The longer the duration, the higher the temperatures get. After 60 minutes, the temperature inside a vehicle can be up to 40 degrees higher than the temperature outside. Cracking the windows at these temperatures does not help.

Animal Services would like to remind community members to never leave animals in hot vehicles, even for a short duration.

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