BELLEVUE, WI (WTAQ) – We’re learning more about what happened when a police dog with the Brown County Sheriff’s Department died inside a hot squad car last month.
During a news conference Friday afternoon, authorities said a combination of several catastrophic failures led to the death of Wix.
“Based on the evidence of the hot car and the blower motor being non-functional, the cause of death is believed to be heat exhaustion/hyperthermia,” said Chief Deputy Todd Delain.
Delain says there were catastrophic failures to the squad car’s AC blower unit, 2 different failures of the Ace K9 Hot-N-Pop alarm to notify the deputy of a hot vehicle, along with a lack of shady areas to park the squad at the PGA Championship in Haven on August 12.
(You can read the entire report by clicking on the PDF attachments above)
The Brown County Sheriff’s Office says Wix and his partner, Deputy Austin Lemberger, were conducting bomb sweeps at the event, under contract with organizers of the golf tournament, who agreed to pay the county for the crew’s time and expenses.
According to their investigation, Wix was in the car for 47 minutes before he was discovered. Veterinarians say its normal for police dogs to stay in squads with the engine running, because the animals need to rest.
The department says Lemberger did not violate any policy or procedure.
Delain says that a routine checkup of Deputy Lemberger’s squad car two weeks earlier was done, and the AC was worked on at that time.
Authorities also say that tests on other K9 squad cars found similar issues with the Hot-N-Pop alarms to Lemberger’s car.
Delain added that he hopes the public will read the report to learn about the facts of this incident, and then make their own judgements.
“Be transparent, be thorough, and learn from it,” said Delain. “Here at the Brown County Sheriff’s Office, as well as every other K9 program in the state of Wisconsin and across the country, does not want this situation to happen.”
The Brown County Sheriff’s Department said that no animal rights groups have contacted them to find out information regarding this investigation.
Delain said the department has filed a claim with their insurance carrier and they’re confident it will be filled. As for a replacement K9, the agency is sending Deputy Lemberger to Albuquerque, New Mexico for 6 weeks to train with a new dog. They expect to have the unit back at full strength in November.
