Jail for dog walker who let pets die in heatwave
A DOG walker who left her clients’ two pets to die in a hot car has been jailed.
Christine Carpenter put the spaniels in her boot on one of the hottest days of the year – days after the Met Office issued an extreme heat warning.
Poppy, 11, and Pixie, five, died ‘within minutes’ as temperatures reached 29C outside, leaving owners Roy and Kate Narbey ‘devastated’. A thermometer used on the dogs displayed its maximum reading of almost 43C.
Carpenter, 55, picked up the pets for ‘a short walk’ in Ringwood, Hampshire, last July 21 at 12.30pm. But Southampton magistrates heard Mrs Narbey was ‘worried’ when she had not returned by 6.15pm or answered her phone.
Prosecutor Sarah Wheadon said when Carpenter did pick up, she said: ‘I’m panicking because I can’t wake the girls up.’
‘At that point Mrs Narbey screamed at her and said, “you need to get to the vets”,’ added Ms Wheadon. The pair were found to be dead at the clinic, where Carpenter told a vet: ‘I only left them for a minute.’
She later told police she had taken the dogs for a walk and to her garden. She said she then put Poppy and Pixie in her car with the windows open and went inside to get her phone and to wash, as she felt ill, before returning.
Ms Wheadon said: ‘The dogs were lying down and not moving. She didn’t know how long the dogs were in the car. She did acknowledge there were exceptional temperatures. ‘She accepted ultimately her actions caused the dogs to die.’ An expert said the dogs died of heat stress.
Mrs Narbey said she now ‘lacks confidence’, adding: ‘There are memories everywhere and I miss them all the time.’ Speaking afterwards, Mr Narbey said he was ‘devastated’. Michael Stocken, mitigating, said Carpenter ‘immediately ceased her business’ and was ‘traumatised herself’. The dog walker, who admitted causing unnecessary suffering to animals and failing to ensure welfare, wept in the dock. Judge Anthony Callaway gave her an 18-week jail term and eight-year pet ban. ‘This was an incredibly hot day and any professional should have known having these dogs anywhere near a car, even with the windows open, was a bad idea,’ he said. ‘This was a gross breach of trust.’