PETA urges Hawai‘i Island police to install heat alert systems in cars to prevent K-9 deaths

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Hawai‘i Island police offering condolences for the loss of one of their K-9s, Archer, who was accidentally left in a vehicle at the Kona police station and died.

The nonprofit also encouraged the department to protect dogs’ lives by implementing and maintaining functional heat-alert alarm systems in all vehicles used to transport K-9s. The letter also said even better would be “phasing out the department’s use of K-9s.”

The dog and his handler, Officer Sidra Brown, were on duty when the “preventable” tragedy occurred on Sept. 4, where temperatures that day rose over 80 degrees. It is unknown how long the 6-year-old Belgian Malinois/German Shepherd mix from Hungary was left in the vehicle.

The pair were part of the Kona Vice section since 2020.

“Imagine Archer’s terror as he died, likely vomiting and convulsing in agony as his body temperature soared and his organs shut down,” PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch said in an email sent to Acting Hawai‘i Island Police Chief Reed Mahuna on Monday.

“PETA urges the Hawai’i Police Department to learn a lesson from this tragedy and immediately install and maintain heat-alert systems in its vehicles or start working to retire the K-9s from its force.”

Mahuna said on Tuesday he did not receive the letter, but did get the email from PETA mentioning the heat alarms.

“Our vehicles do not have these alarms,” Mahuna said, “I am absolutely looking to get these purchased and installed.”

The department is currently researching the alarms, which it has found to cost between $2,000 and $3,000.

Despite being preventable, PETA stated in an email that hot car deaths are among the top causes of death for canines used by police departments.

PETA has been tracking K-9 hot-car deaths since 2015, and the nonprofit said there have been at least 89 reported in the news in the last decade. In July and June, police dogs in Georgia and Maryland died after being left in police vehicles, according to data from the nonprofit.

Hawai‘i Island police is conducting a criminal and administrative investigation into the tragedy. Brown is not suspended at this time, But Mahuna said she no longer is working in the Vice section and is no longer a K-9 handler.

The Kona Vice team has two dogs that are currently working: Boyke, a Belgian Malinois, and Kim, a German Short Haired Pointer. The department has plans to secure another K-9 in the near future.