The owner of the dogs left to roast to death in a parked van this week has been fired from his job.
According to tabloid Correio da Manhã, the man’s boss has said: “He is no longer on our list of employees.”
It didn’t help that the man was using the company van when he was ‘off duty’.
Explained the former boss, “he was not authorised” to be driving it.
But what is not clear is whether the so-far unnamed man will face police prosecution.
Messages over Facebook denouncing the atrocity (click here) say police need someone to actually go into Odivelas police station to lodge an official complaint before any action can be taken.
Once that happens, the dogs’ owner, described as “devastated” by what happened, could face up to two years in jail for animal mistreatment.
Adding to the tragedy is the fact that “several passers-by” witnessed the dogs’ desperate scramble for life without anyone making the decision to break the van’s windows.
CM stresses that not only did no-one actively try and save the dogs, not one person called the PSP.
Consumer association DECO has explained, the very first thing anyone should do when they see animals suffering in closed vehicles is “call the police”.
In advice that tragically went out on the day the dogs suffocated in stultifying heat, the consumer association warned people that breaking windows to free trapped animals can only be used as a “last resort” if it is obvious that police won’t arrive in time.
