Last Friday night, Sharon Mulcahy, 62, raced into a Best Western in Baltimore with her “bowels overflowing,” according to the Baltimore Sun. She checked in, presumably did her business, and then went to sleep. She said later that she tried to check on her Poodles, but she didn’t. She went to sleep. For a long, long time.
Where were her dogs? They were inside her car, sealed shut except for a two-inch gap on the passenger’s window. As Mulcahy slept, night turned into day, and the temperature rose. Inside the car, the temperature soared. She didn’t leave any food or water for the dogs.
The day wore on. Outside temps reached the mid-90s. Inside, CBS Baltimore imagines temps might have reached 160 degrees or more.
By the time police arrived at 3:15 p.m., after a hotel employee finally called, it was too late. A 6-year-old brown Poodle named Missy was dead. Another Poodle, a 10-year-old named Bear, was still alive but very weak. He was located “underneath the steering column in one of the only places inside the vehicle that had shade from the sun,” according to the police report.
The dogs had been in the car nearly 20 hours.
The police report paints a grim scene: “The interior of the vehicle was covered in fecal matter. The inner door handles were scalding to the touch and the temperature inside the vehicle was overwhelming.”
Mulcahy was arrested, charged with six counts of animal cruelty and two counts of restraining a dog without shelter or food and water. Anthony Guglielmi of Baltimore City Police says there’s no excuse for the woman’s actions.
“She had tried to go down to check on the dogs but had fallen asleep, fallen asleep for quite some time, and the dog died in the car. But regardless, that’s still not an excuse,” he told CBS Baltimore. “You just can’t do this to animals. You have to have respect for animals, you have to care for animals. They should have been put in better conditions than what they were left in.”
We don’t like bringing you these stories, but let it serve as a reminder: If you see a dog locked in a car on a hot day, do something. Don’t leave a dog’s fate in the hands of a bonehead.
Via the Baltimore Sun and CBS Baltimore
