K-9’s Hot Car Death Prompts PETA Plea to Hilo Police Chief: Patrol Vehicles Need Heat Alarms

For Immediate Release:
September 8, 2025

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

Following the death of Archer, a K-9 with the Hawai’i Police Department who was left alone Thursday in a patrol car as the high temperature topped over 80 degrees, PETA sent a letter today to Interim Police Chief Reed Mahuna, offering condolences and encouraging him to protect dogs’ lives by implementing and maintaining functional heat-alert alarm systems in all vehicles used to transport K-9s—or better yet, phasing out the department’s use of K-9s.

“Imagine Archer’s terror as he died, likely vomiting and convulsing in agony as his body temperature soared and his organs shut down,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA urges the Hawai’i 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.”

PETA points out that baking to death in a hot car is a horrific way for anyone to die, but despite being completely preventable, it’s 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.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.