A Missouri police officer has been charged with animal abuse after his K9 officer died when he left the dog in his patrol car after his shift.

The Missouri Attorney General’s Office filed the charges against Savannah Police Lt. Daniel Ziegler after the death of K9 Officer Horus, KCTV reported.

Savannah Police announced the dog’s death in June, as CrimeOnline reported, and said it was under investigation. They did not name the handler at the time, and said the dog had been with the department since February 2021.

A probable cause statement says that Horus died on June 20 after Ziegler left the dog in his car overnight. The statement says a witness reported seeing the dog’s body on the ground next to Ziegler’s vehicle and Ziegler yelling that he thought he’d taken the dog inside.

The statement also said that Ziegler’s patrol vehicle was equipped with a safety feature that automatically kicks in when the interior temperature reaches 90 degrees. The feature turns on a fan, rolls down the windows, and honks the horn.

A test conducted on the system a week after the dog’s death showed that it worked properly and had apparently been turned off on the day of the dog’s death.

“This test demonstrated the AceK9 system inside the Savannah Police K-9 vehicle was in working order and would have had to been manually turned off/deactivated on June 20, 2024,” the affidavit said. “The deactivation of the AceK9 system directly contributed to the death of K-9 Horus by removing a safeguard to prevent such an incident.”

Ziegler faces up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine if he’s convicted on the misdemeanor charge, avoiding the much steeper penalties called for in a new law signed in July making it a felony to kill a police dog, Law&Crime said. That law calls for up to seven years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

According to KMBC, Ziegler has been fired.

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[Featured image: Horus/Savannah Police Department]