A Georgia police department is in mourning after the newest and beloved member of the K-9 unit, a bloodhound named Georgia, died after being left in a hot patrol car by a deputy who’s since been fired.
In a Facebook statement on Tuesday from the Dade County Sheriff’s office in Trenton, the department, who labeled the pup “sweet” and “goofy,” wrote that their hearts were aching after losing her because her handler left in a car with temperatures outside reaching between 100-102 degrees after the patrol car’s air conditioning unit failed.
Look at that picture of the sweet puppy.
TRAGIC: A K9 officer named Georgia died while she was inside a vehicle whose air conditioning compressor failed on Sunday.
Dade County authorities say not only that, a heat alarm in the vehicle’s self-contained kennel failed to go off.
MORE: pic.twitter.com/xV28X5GCfq
— WTVC NewsChannel 9 (@newschannelnine) July 15, 2025
“Our hearts are aching at the loss of K-9 Georgia. Many of you know that she was donated to us by a local family at no cost to the sheriff’s office,” the statement read. “She was an amazing bloodhound who was sweet, goofy, and had all the potential to be the ‘best of the best.’ She will be deeply missed by everyone at our office and by anyone who had the pleasure to meet her.”
The statement then broke down what happened.
“Georgia’s Handler was inside the Sheriff’s Office while Georgia was in her patrol car,” the release read. “Unfortunately, a combination of the following factors caused K-9 Georgia to pass away inside the vehicle’s kennel.”
“The Sheriff’s Office immediately launched an investigation into the incident. What we found was that the air conditioner compressor on the patrol unit malfunctioned while K-9 Georgia’s Handler was inside the Sheriff’s Office, requiring total replacement of the compressor,” it added. “The patrol vehicle was also equipped with a heat alarm that was not functioning. Those previous two factors, coupled with K-9 Georgia being left unattended for what we considered to be an unacceptable amount of time, contributed to her passing.”
The statement from the GA department not only addressed the tragedy but also revealed that changes would be taking place moving forward.
“Going forward, any K-9 vehicle we have will be taken out of service if ANY of the essential K-9 equipment isn’t in 100% working order,” it read. “We are also going to overhaul our K-9 handler policy, and K-9s WILL NOT be left in vehicles for extended periods of time during summer.”
“At the direction of Sheriff Cross, K-9 Georgia’s handler is no longer an employee of Dade County Sheriff’s Office, and this entire incident will be turned over to the Dade County District Attorney’s Office to determine if prosecution is warranted in this particular case,” it added.
“We will be 100% transparent about this incident! After we get a decision from the Dade County District Attorney’s Office about prosecution, we will know what additional details we can (or cannot) release,” it concluded, not providing further details about exactly how long the pup was in the car.
Whether it’s a police department losing one of their service dogs or one of our own pups, dogs have such a special place in all our hearts.
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They are always so happy to see you when you get home and are the best snugglers; losing them is just the worst. I feel for anyone who’s lost their favorite fur babies.
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