2 charged in police dog's death in SUV

A Mount Holly police officer and her husband have been charged in the death of Patton, the department's bomb-sniffing dog, who was left in the officer's private vehicle for at least two hours in mid-July, a spokesman for the New Jersey SPCA said yesterday.

Matt Stanton said Officer Kara McIntosh maintains that she left the 5-year-old golden retriever inside her Ford Explorer with the engine running and the air-conditioning on. Her husband, Robert, was supposed to pick up the Explorer with Patton inside.

"When they found the dog, the air-conditioning was not running, the car was not on, and the dog was dead," Stanton said. Patton died of heatstroke, he added.

Kara McIntosh, the department's dog handler, usually took Patton home with her at night, Stanton said.

The McIntoshes were charged with four counts each of cruelty to animals. Two are civil charges on the dog's behalf and two are misdemeanor offenses punishable with up to six months in jail for each count, Stanton said.

The case was filed in Municipal Court in Mount Holly, but has been moved to Burlington City to avoid a conflict of interest, Stanton said.

The charges followed a two-month investigation in which Stanton said the NJSPCA tested the car to see if it had any problems running or with its air-conditioning. No problems were found, he said.

McIntosh, who remains on regular duty with the department, declined to comment yesterday when reached by the Associated Press.

The department first acquired Patton in 2006 from a local rescue center and trained the dog for scent detection.