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Valley News Brief

Buellton

Woman cited for animal endangerment

A 53-year-old Buellton woman was cited for alleged animal endangerment June 19 in the parking lot of Albertsons in Buellton.

According to the report, deputies were dispatched to a call reporting two small dogs locked in a vehicle with the windows rolled up. The temperature that day was over 100 degrees. The vehicle was reportedly parked in direct sunlight and a deputy noted the windows were hot to the touch.

The reporting party said she’s been at the vehicle for 10 minutes. She said she stopped at the vehicle when she heard the dogs barking. The deputy reported both dogs were panting “extremely hard.” The vehicle owner was paged over the public address system at Albertsons and at Longs Drug Store but to no avail.

Firefighters didn’t have a device to open the windows without breaking them and a towing company was on another call. After 10 minutes on the scene, a deputy broke the window with a baton. The dogs were taken out of the vehicle and given shade and water.

When the owner came out of Albertsons, she agreed to allow the dogs to be taken to the Buellton Veterinary Clinic for evaluation and hydration.

She estimated she had been in the store for 25 minutes and hadn’t planned to be in the store for that long.

County Animal Control went to the check on the dogs’ condition at the clinic.

The vehicle owner was cited and released.