(September 4, 2008)—A Houston animal control officer says she tried numerous measures to save the dogs that became overheated in her truck after the air conditioning went out on the vehicle while she was at lunch last week.
Animal control offficer Beverly Tucker told the Houston Chronicle she poured ice and water from two coolers over the two most overheated dogs and poured water from three water bottles over others.
After she got back to the shelter, she hosed the dogs down and started chest compressions on two dogs when they stopped breathing.
City officials said eight dogs died.
City officials originally said Wednesday the air conditioning was working on the truck when it returned to the shelter Aug. 26, but Thursday spokeswoman Kathy Barton said that the air conditioning wasn’t working when Tucker returned and that a mechanic found a problem with the unit.
Tucker told the newspaper her supervisor told her that the wiring on the air conditioner burned.
"It's not my fault that the wires burned on the truck. The air goes out, and I'm being finger-pointed,” she said.
Barton said Tucker, who has been on the job for nine months, didn't follow a policy that requires full loads of animals to be taken to the shelter before long breaks in the summer.
Animal rights activists are calling on officials to fire Tucker.
Activist Sherry Nassar said in an e-mail to the newspaper, "In any other work setting, an employee who screws up this bad would be fired."
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