Woman arrested after dog dies, other pets left in 113-degree car in Ontario, authorities say
A woman was arrested Sunday after police rescued two small pets and recovered a dead dog from a sweltering car in Ontario, authorities said.
Jennifer Arriaga, 42, was taken into custody on suspicion of animal cruelty, according to San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department jail inmate records. She is scheduled to appear Tuesday in Rancho Cucamonga court.
Ontario police and animal officers from the Inland Valley Humane Society & SPCA found the pets abandoned and alone inside a parked car in the 3400 block of Shelby Street.
One dog was dead and a second dog and cat were alive, but they appeared to be “under heavy distress” in the blistering heat, the Inland Valley Humane Society said in a statement.
Officers smashed through one of the car’s windows and rescued the pets.
Temperatures inside the car soared past 113 degrees amid a record-breaking heat wave, according to the organization. Triple-digit heat plagued Southern California and shattered decades-old records during the weekend.
It is unclear how long the dogs and cat had been trapped inside the hot car, but the surviving pets required emergency veterinary treatment.
The pets will continue to receive care at the organization’s headquarters in Pomona.
A necropsy will be performed to determine the dog’s cause of death.
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