Calgary dog owner sentenced in death of animal in hot vehicle

Kaitlyn Folkins was given an 18-month conditional sentence after her dog Lucky died in a hot car last year.

A Calgary woman has been given an 18-month sentence after she pleaded guilty to leaving her dog Lucky in a hot vehicle on Canada Day last year.

A judge ordered Kaitlyn Rose Folkins to serve the first year under house arrest and the rest of the sentence in the community.

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Folkins was charged on July 11, 2024, after a dog was found in medical distress inside a vehicle parked in the 0-100 block of Mount Copper Green S.E.

All the windows of the vehicle were shut, and the doors were locked, police said.

Officials said police that responded to the scene “observed the dog panting so heavily that the car was shaking.”

The dog soon stopped responding to officers at the scene, prompting them to break a window to get in.

Lucky, a four-year-old female Alaskan Malamute/German Shepherd, was pronounced dead at the scene.

It was believed that she was left in the car for more than two hours and the temperature that day was approximately 20 C.

Authorities say they see plenty of incidents of animals being left in vehicles each year.

“All summer – hundreds and hundreds of calls,” said Brad Nichols, director of enforcement and vice-executive director of the Calgary Humane Society.

“If even a percentage of those people think twice about doing it because of this sentence, then it’s served its effect.”

According to the Alberta SPCA, the interior temperature of a vehicle can warm up from 20 degrees to more than 40 degrees in just half an hour.

Folkins was also given a lifetime ban on owning any animals.

With files from Melissa Gilligan