Couple fined for leaving dog to fry in car

8:59am Thursday 19th October 2006

Comments (4)   Have your say »

A COUPLE who left their dog to die in a car on the hottest day of the year have been told to pay more than £5,000.

But Paul and Aisling Wadsworth have not been banned from owning pets and their other dog, Harry, who was also in the car that day and suffered heatstroke, will now be returned.

'This was a tragic incident and the people affected the most by it and will have to live with it for the rest of their lives are in the dock.'

Julia Faur-Walker

The RSPCA, which has been looking after Harry since the incident, says it is disappointed at the sentence.

The couple appeared at Swindon Magistrates' Court yesterday where they each pleaded guilty to a charge of unnecessarily confining a dog in a car and subjecting it to heatstroke causing death and another of unnecessarily confining a dog in a car and subjecting it to heatstroke.

Mr Wadsworth, 33, a college lecturer, and his wife, a 32-year-old RAF nurse, from Peterborough, left their Newfoundland dogs Homer and Harry in their car at Blooms garden centre in Wroughton on July 19.

The couple were holidaying at a campsite in Salisbury and it was the hottest day of the year and the hottest July day since 1911.

Mike Edgar, prosecuting, said that the dogs had been left in the small boot of a Hyundai for four and a half hours starting at noon in heat reaching the mid-30 degrees centigrade (100F).

At first the car was in shade but Mr Edgar said: "It was an extremely hot day and due to the period of confinement the sun moved around.

"These dogs were left for some three hours before they returned to check at 3pm. They were given water but not let out of the vehicle.

"It was then not until 4.30pm that Mrs Wadsworth came out to check on the dogs."

By this time Homer was dead and Harry was suffering severe heatstroke with a temperature of 41.7 degrees centigrade.

The normal temperature for that sort of animal is between 37.5 and 38.5, the court heard.

A statement from the vet who arrived on the scene said both dogs had suffered for a number of hours.

Julia Faur-Walker, defending, said: "This was a tragic incident and the people affected the most by it and will have to live with it for the rest of their lives are in the dock."

Miss Faur-Walker said the pair were devoted to the dogs and did not want to leave them in kennels.

Referring to the moment Mrs Wadsworth discovered what had happened, Miss Faur-Walker said: "Immediately she screamed for help. She asked everybody around if anybody knew a vet.

"She also made sure she poured plenty of the water she had over both dogs and soon other people started to help.

"These two defendants, when they realised there was a problem, did absolutely everything they could to rectify the situation."

She added that the couple had moved house to provide a bigger garden for the dogs, changed cars to have a bigger boot and only went on holiday where they could take the dogs.

The couple, who could have gone to prison for six months, were each fined £1,500 and each ordered to pay costs of £1,030.04, making a total of £5,060.08. They have 28 days to pay.

'I shed tears over this' says RSPCA inspector

Outside the court RSCPA inspector Stephanie Daly said that she would never forget the day she found the dead dog. And she said that she was disappointed with the sentence.

"I still believe they have shown no remorse for their dogs," she said. "It's all been about how they have been feeling. Harry has been in our care and he is a lovely animal. The worry is obviously for the future and how well they will care for him.

"It's shocking to go back to that day and the sights that I saw. The dog didn't go peacefully, he suffered tremendously. I'm very disappointed and emotional.

"I will remember that day for the rest of my life. It had been a very hot month, a hot week and it was a hot day. They went off and had fun and enjoyed themselves without a care for their dogs.

"I asked them if they would sit in their car with no air conditioning and they said no' so why expect a dog to?

"I had to read the post mortem report and it wasn't pleasant reading. I will be the first to admit that I shed tears over this."

To comment on this story, click on the link below.