8 Dogs Die in Animal Control Officer's Truck

HOUSTON (AP) - The deaths of eight dogs that became overheated in a city animal control truck has some animal welfare activists calling for the animal control officer to be fired.

The dogs were left in the truck while the officer went to lunch on August 26. The high in Houston on that day was 95 degrees.

The officer has told Bureau of Animal Care and Regulation officials that the air conditioning was working on her truck when she went to lunch but malfunctioned.

The Houston Chronicle reports the department is investigating because the air conditioning was working when the officer returned to the shelter with the dogs.

The officer has been assigned to duties within the shelter while the investigation is conducted.

Activist Sherry Nassar said in an e-mail to the newspaper that, quote, "In any other work setting, an employee who screws up this bad would be fired."

A spokeswoman for the city health and human services department, Kathy Barton, said it's, quote, "a mechanical issue or a human failure issue."

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)