PETA weighs in on K-9 Archer’s death

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said it sent a letter Monday to Hawaii Police Department Interim Chief Reed Mahuna concerning Archer, the West Hawaii Vice Division K-9 that died Thursday after being left unattended in a police vehicle.

According to a statement by the animal advocacy organization, the letter offered condolences as well as urging the chief to take remedial measures.

“Imagine Archer’s terror as he died, likely vomiting and convulsing in agony as his body temperature soared and his organs shut down,” PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch said in a statement.

“PETA urges the Hawaii Police Department to learn a lesson from this tragedy and immediately install and maintain heat-alert systems in its vehicles or start working to retire the K-9s from its force.”

Mahuna on Monday confirmed receipt of PETA’s letter.

According to the HPD website, Officer Sidra Brown, a department veteran of almost 13 years, was the handler for the 6-year-old German shepherd/Belgian Malinois mix. Brown is the only woman officer among the department’s K-9 handlers.

Both an internal administrative investigation and a criminal animal cruelty investigation have been initiated, Mahuna confirmed.

“I don’t know what the outcomes of those investigations will be,” Mahuna said. “We’ve just initiated them.”

Mahuna confirmed that the criminal investigation will likely be forward to the county Office of the Prosecuting Attorney and/or the state Attorney General to make a final decision on whether to initiate charges.

Hawaii has both misdemeanor and felony charges for animal cruelty. First-degree animal cruelty is a Class C felony punishable by five years imprisonment, upon conviction.

Asked if Brown had been placed on administrative leave, Mahuna replied, “No, but the officer has been reassigned.”

Mahuna said that Capt. Edwin Buyten, the Vice Division commander “is reviewing policies and procedures to see if there are any policy and procedural changes that could be made so that something like this doesn’t happen again.”

“We’re also looking at different equipment that may be useful in preventing this type of tragedy.”

Mahuna reiterated that the death of Archer, born Dec. 1, 2018, in Hungary, is “a preventable tragedy.”

“These dogs are dependent on us to care for them — and when a tragedy like this happens and we fall short we have to take a serious look at everything that’s involved in it,” he said. “Because we cannot let something like this happen again.”

Mahuna said that because of the ongoing investigation, he “couldn’t give … an exact time”Archer had been left in the vehicle, “other than to say that it was extended and unacceptable.”

“And quite frankly, you know, the dog shouldn’t have been left in the car at all,” he said.

Mahuna said he comes from a family that loves dogs, adding he “lost sleep” after learning of the incident.

PETA didn’t provide statistics, but said in its statement that overheating in a hot car is “among the top causes of death for dogs used by police departments.”

“Any vehicle holding a K-9 should be equipped with a fully functional heat alert system, and PETA is calling for law enforcement nationwide to phase out the use of K-9s altogether,” the dispatch stated.

According to AccuWeather.com, the afternoon high Thursday in Kailua-Kona was 88 degrees.

On its website, PETA reported incidents of police dog deaths in the U.S. over the past year, gathered from local news outlets where the incidents occurred. They include:

• North Salt Lake Police Department in Utah, where a therapy dog in training died in a hot police vehicle in August. According to the report, the Davis County Sheriff’s Office was investigating.

• Dade County Sheriff’s Office in Trenton, Ga., K-9 Georgia, a young bloodhound, died in a hot patrol car. The sheriff’s office said that the heat index was around 100 to 102 degrees while Georgia was left unattended in the vehicle and its air conditioning failed. Heat alarm equipment in the vehicle was reportedly not working at the time, either. Authorities said that Georgia’s handler was fired and that the local district attorney’s office would determine whether prosecution is warranted.

• Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland, where K-9 Ender, a 5-year-old German shepherd trained in drug detection, had died of heat-related illness in a hot patrol vehicle while off duty in June. Reports indicate that the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office performed an investigation into Ender’s death and forwarded the case to the state’s attorney’s office for further consideration.

• Bangor, Maine, where Baxter, a 3-year-old chocolate Labrador who “offered emotional support to Maine’s emergency dispatchers,” was found dead inside a state Department of Public Safety vehicle in May. A department spokesperson said that the vehicle’s engine had stopped running and cut off the air conditioning. Temperatures that day reached 82 degrees in Bangor.

• Las Vegas, where news outlets reported that James Harris, former handler of Clark County School District Police K-9 Marley, pleaded not guilty in March of two misdemeanors for confining an animal to a motor vehicle and failing to provide air, food, shelter, or water to the confined animal. Marley, a 5-year-old black Labrador retriever, died in November 2024. Harris allegedly left Marley unattended in the car for more than six hours after he’d disconnected the heat-alert system that would automatically roll down windows, turn on a fan, and set off an alarm if the temperature inside the vehicle became too warm for the dog.

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.