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The handler for a Maine comfort dog that died in a hot car earlier this year has been charged with a civil violation of animal cruelty.
Brodie Hinckley was charged in the comfort dog’s death, the Penobscot County district attorney’s office said Friday. He is accused of confining Baxter to an enclosed space in extreme heat, under Maine’s cruelty to animals law.
Baxter, a 3-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever, died May 28 after he was left in a hot car parked at the Bangor Regional Communications Center. The dog was supposed to provide comfort to Maine’s emergency dispatchers.
Hinckley, the emergency communications director for the Maine Department of Public Safety Communications, is on paid administrative leave effective immediately, the department’s spokesperson Shannon Moss said.
The charges against Hinckley come nearly three months after the state launched an independent investigation into Baxter’s death. The investigation began June 18 and was conducted by the Animal Welfare Program of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.
Baxter was found dead in a Maine Department of Public Safety vehicle that was not running and parked at the Bangor Regional Communications Center. Temperatures reached 82 degrees Fahrenheit in Bangor that day.
It’s still unclear if Baxter had a necropsy, which is an examination to determine the cause of death of an animal.
Baxter started training to join the force in 2022, and worked at the state’s three emergency communication centers to offer support to dispatchers. Baxter was a frequent star on the Facebook page for public safety communications.
Hinkley was summoned to appear in court on Nov. 6.