Dog dies after being locked inside a truck

taken from http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/index.html
QUEBEC (OTTAWA CITIZEN) - A Quebec man has been charged with animal cruelty after a dog was allegedly left in the back of a truck to die of heat exhaustion. Yves Levergneux, of Val-des-Monts, Quebec, was charged June 21 after investigators with the Ottawa Humane Society (OHS) found the body of an eight-month-old Mastiff-type dog inside a dumpster at an East-end Ottawa locksmith shop.
On June 8, the society received a call from a witness who reported seeing a man disposing of a dog. When investigators attended the scene, they discovered a deceased dog inside a dumpster, with blood around its mouth and paws. The body was removed and taken back to the OHS for examination.
On June 11, the society says investigators returned to the locksmith shop to interview staff. Mr. Levergneux told investigators that the dog, which he described as a Dogo Argentina, had been defecating indoors and had to be removed. The society says Mr. Levergneux admitted to placing the dog in the back of a capped pick-up truck on the afternoon of June 8, when the temperature was 30C (37C with the humidex). They said when Mr. Levergneux returned to the truck two hours later, the dog was dead, so he disposed of the body in the dumpster. Results of an OHS post-mortem examination on the dog, the society says, indicate the animal likely died of heat exhaustion from being locked inside the truck for too long at extreme temperatures. The air inside a parked car can heat up within minutes on a hot day. With only hot air to breathe, a dog's normal cooling process of panting doesn't work and its internal body temperature can elevate to dangerous levels quite quickly. This can lead to heatstroke, brain damage and death. Mr. Levergneux has been charged with two counts of animal cruelty under the Criminal Code of Canada, for failing to provide suitable and adequate care to an animal, and for causing unnecessary pain, suffering and injury to an animal.
The society has recently issued warning letters to several owners who have left their dogs in cars on hot days. Last week, an OHS agent had to remove a dog that had been left in a car for 45 minutes.
"It is not OK to leave an animal in a car on a hot day for any length of time," said Tim Brown, an OSPCA inspector with the OHS. "A locked vehicle can quickly become an oven, and, just like an oven, if you turn it on to 400F and leave the door open a crack, the temperature inside will still be 375F. Leaving the windows rolled down on a car does nothing to reduce the temperature inside a vehicle."