Man spared jail despite leaving dogs to cook to death while he went to the gym

A man who left his dogs to cook to death in his car for five hours while he went to the gym has been spared jail. Even though it was just 19°C outside, in the car it was 40°C, killing Daisy, Mitch and Rascal who had been left with no water and no ventilation. Jonathan Theobald, 65, pleaded guilty at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court to causing unnecessary suffering to the three dogs. Inside the car, investigators found that the dogs had tried to claw their way out before suffering seizures and dying from heat exposure. Prosecutor William Powell said: ‘These animals would have suffered immensely.’They would have gone through stages of panic, heat stress and likely seizures and injury in an attempt to escape before dying. Theobald was given an 18-week prison sentence suspended for two years. He was also banned from owning animals for 10 years and does not have the right to appeal for five years. The dogs were found on June 16 outside Vivacity gym in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. When he finally returned to his car, Theobald saw two of the dogs were already dead before trying to save the third using CPR after noticing it was showing signs of life. He then took them to the back of the gym to try and bury them and that’s when staff called police. By the time they arrived he had left with the dogs and he was found at his home in Peterborough with the animals in his car. | Metro News via IFTTT

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