Woman’s dog victim of deadly summer heat

“I dropped to my knees, cried my eyes out. I felt desperate, lost, guilty,” Katheryn Loerke said.

Her little dog Sandy was her life. Until a busy day in life changed things forever.

“I ran in, shut the doggy door didn’t realize she wasn’t in the house. I left in a rush that morning,” she said.

She came home from work 12 hours later to Sandy’s lifeless body laying in the sun.

“That day about 10 a.m. some coworkers commented to me it’s already 113 degrees,” she said.

That fateful day, temperatures reached 120 degrees in parts of the Coachella Valley. Sadly, dogs are often left out in the heat.

“We get a lot of calls in the summer about dogs being left outside with no shade, food or water and a lot of calls regarding dogs in a car,” Officer Daniel Mora of Riverside County Animal Control said.

Riverside County Animal Control regularly goes on calls about reports of dogs being left out in the heat. Yet not every owner who leaves their dog out even in 120 degrees is breaking the law.

We went on a ride along with Riverside County Animal Control as temperatures soared into triple digits.

“There’s a dog tied to a tree,” Officer Mora said. “It’s illegal to keep your dog tied to a single object for more than 3 hours in a single day.”

The day he got the call, the owner wasn’t home so he’s back – now for a third time. Animal Control will continue to try to find the owner and inform them of the law.

“What’s legal, is it’s ok to leave your animal outside, it doesn’t matter the temperature, as long as there’s food, water, and shelter,” Officer Mora said.

Shade from a home or tree doesn’t count because that shade moves with the moving sun. What does count as shelter for a pet is something the dog can go under or inside, like a tarp or dog house.

“How many strikes does someone have before you remove their dog?” Bianca Rae asked.

“Until we see the animal in complete distress,” Officer Mora said.

How thin is the line between complete distress and death? On the same day Sandy died, an Animal Control officer said a golden retriever was put down because it was brain dead due to heat exposure.

While Animal Control says they’ve responded to 118 heat-related calls in the past five years, the number of heat-related deaths may be highly underreported because dog owners don’t call in about them.

We went to Animal Services to speak with Deputy Director Frank Corvino more in-depth about the law.

“Should the valley have a more stringent ordinance than state law given our dangerous heat?” Rae asked.

“I don’t think so. If we had an ordinance that said every homeowner had to provide a doghouse, for example, that may be adequate for the law but not for the temperatures. So everything has to be taken into consideration. To formulate a law to fit every situation is impossible,” Officer Corvino said. “There are dogs that can acclimate to 110. Not in direct sunlight, but we as humans can acclimate.”

“You say can acclimate, should a dog have to acclimate to 119?” Rae asked.

“I think if we’re living in these areas that reach those temperatures I think we all have to acclimate to that,” Corvino said. “These accidents will still happen. We still have stupid people who leave their dogs in the yard when they reasonably should know it’s too hot to do that.

The dog Officer Mora and I went to check on during our ride along was eventually brought in. Not all dogs are that lucky.

“She was my everything. She was my child. I fell asleep with her and I woke up with her,” Loerke said, and she pleads with others to not make the same mistake she did.

“I urge them to bring them inside,” she said.

If you see a pet outside that you feel isn’t getting adequate care, call Animal Control right away at 760-343-3645. If the animal is down and suffering, call the police.

Signs of heat stroke for a dog include: excessive or loud panting, extreme thirst, frequent vomiting, a bright red tongue and pale gums, skin around the muzzle or neck doesn’t snap back when pinched, thick saliva, and increased heart rate.