Whitefish, Montana - With temperatures hovering around 89 degrees last week, a small dog trapped in a closed vehicle on Central Avenue galvanized a community-wide response, July 21.
Dave Kellogg of Whitefish called the Whitefish Police Department at 3:55 p.m. to report a dog in a vehicle with the windows all the way up.
The white Ford Expedition with Utah plates was parked downtown in front of the Great Northern bar. Kellogg claims the dog was in the car when he arrived at the bar around 3:30 p.m. Other witnesses claim to have seen the dog as early as 3 p.m. With temperatures ranging from 87 to 90-degrees, many of the witnesses felt the animal was in need of help.
Officer Haag responded to the call and upon arrival noticed a Styrofoam cup with water in the passenger side lower door pocket, but the dog, a small Yorkshire terrier, was panting and appeared to be in some distress.
Haag went into the bar to ask if the owner was at the establishment, but nobody responded. By the time Haag was finished with his search, a group of about 10 people had gathered around the vehicle to see what was being done.
Included in the group were Police Chief Bill Dial and Judge Brad Johnson.
"The judge is an animal lover and I'm an animal lover," Police Chief Bill Dial told the Pilot. "There's no excuse for doing that in my mind."
Johnson told the Pilot he and Dial looked into the vehicle and saw a spiral notebook with phone numbers on it. While they were trying to dial the numbers, however, the dog knocked the book over. A wrecker was called at 4:23 p.m. to get the dog out of the vehicle.
Johnson then began a new search for the owners. After looking through a few establishments, he found the family at MacKenzie River Pizza. The call to the wrecker was canceled.
After a bit of questioning, it was discovered that the animal belonged to Cassie Stocker of North Ogden, Utah. When Stocker returned to the vehicle, she claimed to have only been away from the vehicle for 20 minutes, but half a dozen witnesses signed reports that say otherwise.
Stocker was issued a citation for cruelty to animals with instructions to appear in court at 9 a.m. the next day.
Judge Johnson says the Stockers appeared punctually the next day and were a bit overwhelmed when they were told the penalty could be as much as a $1,000 fine and up to one year in the Flathead County jail.
Johnson said Stocker was unsure of what to do at this point, so she was granted a continuance until 9 a.m. on Aug. 9. The case will be assigned to Judge Thomas Tornow because Johnson was involved in the fact-finding.
This is the first case of an animal being left in a hot vehicle this year and Judge Johnson says it doesn't happen very often.
It is unknown at this time if the maximum penalty will be sought against Stocker. Johnson said the typical scenario is, the greater the social harm, the greater the penalty.
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