They say no good deed goes unpunished, and that’s what some locals thought after a Camden woman was charged with a crime for retrieving a dog from a truck outside Long Grain on Washington Street this week.
It is a dilemma of our times: You see a dog in a vehicle on a summer day. Do you intervene, even if that means potentially breaking the law by entering someone else’s vehicle? Or do you call police and trust authorities to take care of it in time?
Molly Harish, 41, was charged with burglary of a motor vehicle after removing the dog from the hot truck and taking it down to the nearby police station, two blocks away. She is a registered nurse and member of the Camden Conservation Commission. She has also worked with the nonprofit Sweet Shots for Diabetes, which helps provide support for people with Type 1 diabetes.
On Friday, just after noon, Camden police received a call from Long Grain staff about a dog in a truck on Washington Street.
Animal Control Officer Spencer Tooley investigated, according to Police Chief Allen Weaver. The officer believed the dog to be safe because the truck was in the shade with the window rolled down and it was about 73 degrees outside. The owner of the vehicle was working at the Opera House next door and periodically coming out to check on the animal.
Long Grain owner Paula Palakawong disagreed with that assessment. She said the truck was parked there with the dog in it for up to two hours at a time and that people at the scene even used a handheld thermometer to check the temperature inside the truck, finding it to be 90 degrees. She said the dog looked in poor shape.
Harish was having lunch at Long Grain at the time.
The restaurant owner said the police showed up and did nothing and that witnesses couldn’t resist trying to help as they watched the dog remain in the vehicle. So Harish opened the vehicle and let out the dog, which was given some water before being taken to the police station. Palakawong said the dog drank two full cups of water.
The dog was described as being a large breed, possibly an Airedale terrier mix.
Tooley returned to the scene and charged Harish with burglary of a motor vehicle, Weaver said.
Harish, reached by phone Thursday, declined to comment, saying she is waiting to consult with an attorney on the case.
Weaver said the vehicle was not damaged and the dog was returned to the owner, who is not being named since the owner was not charged with a crime. In this case, he said, Harish should have allowed police to handle the situation.
The incident has created some buzz in the community and the Midcoast Villager received several tips about the incident from passersby who were unhappy about how the police handled the situation. Rumors swirled that Harish was arrested and led out of the restaurant in handcuffs — Weaver said she was not arrested, just charged.
Hundreds of pets die each year from heatstroke in vehicles, according to the American Kennel Club, which warns that dogs can overheat in cars much quicker than most people expect, even when the outside temperature is only 70 degrees. At least 32 states have laws that prohibit leaving animals in cars under dangerous conditions or provide legal immunity for removing a distressed animal from an overheated car, according to Michigan State University Law School’s Animal Legal & Historical Center.
In Maine, confining an animal in a car during “extreme heat or extreme cold” can lead to an animal cruelty charge. However, legal immunity for removing an animal from a vehicle only extends to “authorized persons” — law enforcement, animal control officers, firefighters and some security guards — not concerned citizens. And an animal can only be removed from the vehicle if it appears to be in “immediate danger” from conditions that could “reasonably be expected to cause extreme suffering or death.”
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.