14 bomb dogs die in sealed truck

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#1
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Lawsuit-14-bomb-sniffing-dogs-on-way-to-2402337.php

The death of 14 bomb-sniffing dogs allegedly housed in an unventilated sealed truck while awaiting air shipment from Houston to military forces in Afghanistan has spawned a lawsuit in which requested damages may top $1 million.
Named in the suit filed this week in 281st state District Court in Harris County are Indian Creek Enterprises, Inc. — doing business as Animal Port Houston — and Live Animal Transportation Services.
Lawyers for the dogs' owners, Florida-based American K-9 Detection Services said the animals — German shepherds and Belgian Malinois — died on Dec. 21 while housed in a truck at Animal Port Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport facility.
In an unsuccessful bid to settle the matter without going to court, a Houston lawyer for the Florida company asked the defendants to pay $1.3 million in damages and $30,000 in legal fees.
According to the lawsuit, the animals — Tiny, Rex, Rocky, Crock, Dork, Harrie, Stress, Sigo, Rex, Jaco, Kimbo, Kilo, Albert and Bak — were taken the Houston shipping facility on Dec. 20. A veterinarian had certified all were in good health.
When it was not possible to ship the animals on a same-day flight, the lawsuit contends Animal Port Houston employee Christopher Hay said the dogs would be boarded overnight in the company's kennel and warehouse.
The animals were to be flown to Afghanistan Dec. 21, 2010.
But when agents for the dogs' owners visited the shipping facility early on that morning, they found the animals inside an unattended refrigerated box truck, the lawsuit says. The truck was running with the doors partly ajar.
The agents smelled a rancid odor, the lawsuit says, and when they shook the crates, the dogs inside failed to move. They found blood on the truck floor and in some crates and damage that suggested two animals had tried to escape the containers.
All the dogs were dead. Hay who now is the owner of Live Animal Transportation Services said Wednesday he was familiar with the incident but unaware he had been named in the lawsuit.
Thomas Schooler, owner of Indian Creek Enterprises, could not immediately be reached for comment.
 

AliciaD

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#4
That is horrible, my god. Although I really don't know, it seems like a completely horrible way to die.
 

Kimbers

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#5
Absolutely disgusting.
Why pretend you can be held responsible for a creature's life if you're just going to do a less-than-half-assed job?
 

lizzybeth727

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#6
Is it fairly common in Texas to store dogs in refrigerated trucks? I've never heard of such a goofy thing.
MAYBE if it's really hot, but the article says the date was Dec 21. Of course it's usually still pretty warm sometimes in December (80s are not unusual), but still.
 
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#8
Wait, did they freeze to death or heat to death? If it's in the 90's and the cooling system wasn't on, then they could have easily had heat stroke too.

Either way that is just awful. Great dogs lost, all of the training put into them, ugh.
 

Xandra

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#9
I assumed they overheated? I'd think it takes quite a bit of cold to kill a large fairly sturdy double coated dog like a GSD. Especially one in a plastic kennel, if that's what they were in.

Either way I find it very disturbing. Poor dogs, and how upsetting for the owners and sellers.
 

Kat09Tails

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#10
It's totally possible it was because they were boxed in a running truck that was not moving that the exhaust killed them. That would also fit the panicked state the dogs apparently were in before they expired.

It's a sad waste of life.

ETA Weather underground says the temperature that day in Houston was 82 degrees. I guess heat stroke is totally possible.

http://www.wunderground.com/history...tml?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA
 

smkie

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#14
My heart goes out to the trainers, and everyone involved in encouraging and training such good dogs. If I were one of them I would want a the responsible head on a poke if it was intentional. If it were a complete uneducated accident the responsible party has that to face forever and I wouldn't wish that on anyone either. Just horrid.
run free dogs in a place where things like this could never happen.
 

Lilavati

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#16
I assumed it was heat stroke.

What possessed them to leave them in that truck? What could they possibly have been thinking?
 
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#17
Is it normal for a lawsuit to take 1 year to be filed? At first I thought this was recent, but the date would be tomorrow. I guess the article was spurred more by the filing of the suit than the incident itself?
 

smkie

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#18
ever wish a thread title would vanish, every time I see this one my heart hurts. I have had heat stroke, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. I hope they win their suit.
 

Lilavati

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#19
Is it normal for a lawsuit to take 1 year to be filed? At first I thought this was recent, but the date would be tomorrow. I guess the article was spurred more by the filing of the suit than the incident itself?
Very normal. Often suits are filed just before the statute of limitations would expire. Often the parties are trying to settle it out of court, or people just take their time getting a lawyer and getting the complaint drafted. For that matter, lawyers will often put something on the back burner if the SOL is not fairly soon, unless the client really pushes for them to act sooner. One year is actually pretty quick, since the SOL is probably 3 three years . . .

And yes, the article was probably spawned by the court complaint. People watch the court dockets for stories . . . whereas the parties might not have discussed this publicly when it happened.
 
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#20
Thanks, Lilavati. I was wondering. I tend against procrastination in my personal habits, so the legal process is painfully slow by my way of thinking.

(Falls silent after being hypnotized by Lilavati's anime-earth-moon picture.)
 

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