Detectives with the Collier County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) Animal Cruelty Investigations Alliance arrested a woman on a felony charge Thursday after they say she intentionally left a dog in a hot car for hours causing the animal’s death.
Deputies arrested 45-year-old Allison Christian for aggravated animal cruelty in connection with the death of a 3-year-old Labrador retriever mix named Tucker. Tucker was a registered service animal.
“We have zero tolerance for animal cruelty in Collier County,” Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said. “This was an intentional and deliberate act of cruelty inflicted on a helpless animal. No animal should ever have to suffer the way Tucker did.”
Investigators say Christian got into a verbal dispute with her boyfriend around 2:30 p.m. after she found him inside an RV with another woman, Tucker’s owner.
Tucker ran out of the RV and into a nearby parked car.
According to CCSO, Christian secured Tucker in the vehicle, shut the door, and left the residence. She returned 20 minutes later but never checked on Tucker as the animal sweltered inside the locked vehicle with the doors and windows closed in 83-degree heat.
Tucker was discovered three hours later deceased inside the vehicle.
