Athens, Georgia – A man who saved a dog from a hot car
wasn't rewarded for his action. Instead, the move landed him behind bars.
"I heard someone say there was a dog in distress in a
hot car," said Michael Hammons, a Desert Storm veteran.
Diane Byard said she and a group of shoppers noticed the
dog in the Mustang and were waiting on police before Hammons came.
"He says we can't let this dog die, and he starts
smashing the windows."
Hammons used his wife's wheelchair leg to smash the window,
freeing the dog.
"I've got PTSD, and I've seen enough death and
destruction," Hammons said. "And I didn't want anything else to
happen if I could prevent it."
Witnesses say when the owner of the car came out of the
store, she was furious, and demanded deputies take action.
"We would not have made those charges on our
own," said Oconee County Chief Deputy Lee Weems. "The deputies on
scene say the owner of the car and of the dog was very insistent that he be
charged with criminal trespassing."
The dog's owner told police she had only been gone five
minutes.
"It wasn't just five minutes like the lady stated, it
was a lot longer," Byard said. "I personally felt the heat in the
car; I saw the dog panting. This dog was in distress."
The dog's owner could not be reached for comment Monday.
"If it is 80 degrees outside, within 30 minutes, it
will be 114 degrees inside a vehicle, even with the windows cracked,"
Byard said.
The owner was cited for leaving the dog in the hot car. But
without surveillance video, deputies say it is hard to tell how long the dog
was actually left in the car.
Georgia state law does allow an individual to break a
window to save a child in a hot or cold car, but not a pet. That is something
that animal advocates say they are working to change.
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