Prison sentence for couple who left their dog to die in their car in the blazing sun while they had lunch in a restaurant in Asturias

A couple have each been sentenced to one and a half years in prison for animal cruelty. The incident took place on 4 September 2022 in the car park of a restaurant in the village of Parres, in the municipality of Llanes.

A third defendant, the woman’s daughter, who worked at the premises where the dog died, has been acquitted following an appeal lodged with the provincial court of Asturias, on the grounds that she was unaware of the dangerous situation the animals were in; the animals belonged to her and were in the care of her mother and her mother’s partner.

She rushed out with a bottle of water when she was alerted to the situation, but for one of the Yorkshire terriers it was already too late. The other survived thanks to the treatment it received from a vet at the scene.

“Being fully aware that they had left the Yorkshire Terriers inside a vehicle parked in the restaurant’s car park, where they were exposed to direct sunlight while they were inside the restaurant, and also aware of the high temperatures that day, they ignored the repeated warnings given to them by various members of staff that the dogs were in mortal danger,” states the ruling of the provincial court of Asturias.

Witnesses alerted the Guardia Civil. When they arrived at the scene, “they found that the animals were being treated by a vet, and that one of the dogs had died as a result of the high temperatures inside the vehicle. It suffered a painful and agonising death due to dehydration. The other dog managed to survive thanks to the intervention of the veterinary staff", adds the ruling.

“At no point did either of them bother to go out to the vehicle while they were inside the premises eating to check on the dogs, despite it being a sunny day with high temperatures,” states the judgement, which adds:

“Not only that, but both defendants, having been alerted by the person standing at the entrance to the establishment to the dangerous situation the dogs were in, ignored the matter until they left some 15 or 20 minutes later, after being strongly warned by the restaurant owner given the severity of the problem and their inaction, to the extent that he even stated he was going to smash the window to get them out.”

By the time they went to the car, one of the dogs was dying and the other was resuscitated by a vet.

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