Police: Owner Enjoyed Father's Day Meal While 1.5 Pound Dog Left In Hot Truck

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Police have charged a man with animal cruelty after he allegedly left his 1.5-pound dog in a hot car while he enjoyed a Father’s Day meal at a local restaurant.

An officer with the Roswell Police Department on Sunday discovered the tiny pooch inside the back seat of a 2004 Dodge Ram pickup truck. The agency on Monday notified the public of the incident on its Facebook page, recounting the story from the point of view of the dog.

“I feel very blessed that a wonderful human family adopted me,” the posts states. “I love being a part of a family where I am well-cared for and adored, but I have a sad story to tell you.”

Police say the dog was nudged back into the seat and “the door closed in my face.”

“Since I’m so small, I couldn’t see anything but the tops of trees and the sun beaming in through the window,” the agency wrote. “I barked and barked with all my might, but my family walked away. They made a mistake and left me inside the hot truck.”

According to an incident report released by Roswell police, the dog was found alone Sunday afternoon in a truck at The Village Shopping Center at 1085 Holcomb Bridge Road. The truck was turned off and parked in direct sunlight, the report states.

A passerby heard the dog’s cries and called 911. An officer arrived on the scene just before 2 p.m. to find the dog, a light-brown Chihuahua puppy, whimpering, panting heavily and appeared to have urinated inside the truck.

While all four windows of the truck were ”cracked” about two to three inches, the temperature in Roswell at the time of the officer’s arrival was 89 degrees with 54 percent humidity, the officer wrote in the report.

Get your Roswell weather forecast here.

The officer was able to remove the dog from the truck through an unlocked door, placed the pet inside its air-conditioned patrol vehicle and gave the pooch some cool water to drink.

A non-contact infrared thermometer used by the officer to measure the temperature on the floor and seats of the truck registered 115 degrees, the report noted.

• RELATED: Roswell Police Find Dog Inside “Sweltering Hot Vehicle”

Officers conducted a search of the strip mall and located the owner, 39-year-old Dawsonville resident Mario E. Maldonado Sanchez, who was having lunch at the time of the incident.

Sanchez told officers he was ”in the restaurant for about 30 minutes while the puppy suffered in his truck,” the report states.

“He told the officer that he thought that I would be okay because he left the windows cracked, but I was not okay,” the Facebook posts states. “I was losing strength from the heat, and I was dehydrated – I felt like I was dying. I overheard the officer tell my owner that the temperature inside the truck was 115 degrees.”

The officer initially decided to arrest Sanchez on the cruelty to animals ordinance violation, but decided to release the man on a copy of the charges when he learned his two young daughters were inside the restaurant. The puppy was returned to the two children.

The cruelty to animal charge could carry up to six months in jail, Roswell police said.

Roswell police strongly encourage owners not to leave their pets inside the vehicles and for residents to call 911 if they come across a pet trapped inside a vehicle.

As of late Tuesday morning, the Facebook post received close to 18,000 likes and over 20,000 shares.

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Photo credit: Roswell Police Department