The Associated Press
SCOTT CITY, Kan. (AP) - In three short hours on a hot June day, Scott County lost a police dog and Doug Haire lost both a partner and a job he loved.
Haire has faced the consequences of leaving Dar, a 4-year-old shepherd, in the back seat of a police cruiser where the dog died of heat stroke.
A Scott City police officer since October 2000, Haire resigned his job and, unasked, left a $6,000 check at City Hall to cover the loss of the dog.
“There is nobody who feels worse about Dar’s death than I do,” Haire, a 31-year-old former art teacher, said recently at the home he and his wife are building.
Scott County Sheriff Alan Stewart said he saw no reason to prosecute his former officer because there was no criminal intent involved.
County Attorney John Shirley agreed.
“I don’t anticipate any charges being filed,” Shirley said. “This case is closed.”
But Haire vividly recalls the events of June 9, a day when temperatures in west-central Kansas rose into the 90s.
Around midday, Haire left Dar in the four-door police cruiser parked outside the Scott City Law Enforcement Center while he went inside to work.
It was not unusual to leave a K-9 dog in the vehicle, said Haire, who had completed his K-9 training a month earlier. The back windows of the four-door vehicle were open and there was a dish of water inside Dar’s kennel, which was a wire-mesh cage.
“He had a bowl with two inches of water in it, plus he was used to the heat. It wasn’t like he was a dog that was always in air-conditioning and then thrown into a hot car,” Haire said.
Haire was inside conducting a urine test on a suspect. When he stepped outside to talk to the suspect’s parents, he heard Dar bark, which was common for the dog to do when he heard his master.
“I gave him the command for quiet, and he stopped and focused on me,” said Haire. He went back into inside the building and began to take a lunch break, then was asked to take a prisoner over to courthouse.
“I got caught up at the courthouse for an hour and half while the lawyers talked. And at that time, I was thinking I needed to get back to my car. But if I had thought I was doing any harm to Dar, I would have left him somewhere else.”
Haire finally got back to the patrol car at about 3 p.m.
“I felt something was wrong. I called Dar’s name and thought maybe he was asleep. ... I opened the kennel door and nudged him, but in my heart I knew he was dead,” Haire said.
He and another officer rushed Dar to a veterinarian, hoping it was not too late.
When members of the city told the sheriff that Haire’s credibility with the public was lost, Haire reluctantly resigned.
Shirley said he thought Haire did the honorable thing by resigning and that the check he left at City Hall “surprised a lot of people.”
Hair said it was only right.
“He was my partner. I felt I needed to pay for the dog because I don’t want the program to suffer because of me,” Haire said.