A Tampa man was arrested after he allegedly left two dogs inside a locked car for nearly 12 hours.<\/p>\n
Hillsborough County deputies responded to a concerned neighbor’s call just after 2 a.m. Monday at an apartment complex in Tampa. The neighbor said she saw two dogs inside the car.<\/p>\n
The dogs had first been seen in the car the previous day at 3 p.m., deputies say.<\/p>\n
Kenneth Warren, 67, reportedly came outside while deputies were investigating the call. He was then arrested and charged with two counts of cruelty to animals.<\/p>\n
“Leaving these dogs locked in a hot car for hours wasn’t a lapse in judgment; it was gross negligence,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said in an HCSO post on X.<\/p>\n
On Sunday just after 6:45 p.m., temperatures in Tampa were recorded at 85 degrees<\/a>, according to an Oct. 4 forecast by 10 Tampa Bay News meteorologists. And at 88 degrees<\/a>, Monday was projected to be the hottest day of the week on Oct. 5.<\/p>\n The National Weather Service says the inside of a car can act like a greenhouse; cars can reach upwards of 120 degrees, with a 20-degree increase in just 10 minutes and up to 50 degrees within an hour. Data shows that from 1998 to 2016, there were 700 deaths caused by being left in a hot car.<\/p>\n “Half of these were children that were forgotten by a parent or other caregiver, and nearly 20 percent died when parents knowingly left their child in a vehicle,” NWS said. “The rest died playing in an unattended vehicle.”<\/p>\n